The Great Seal Rescue....
Markie and Dick went for a walk on the Beach....
And then Dick showed me a picture of a beached baby seal(well not a baby, but little). I wanted to see it so Kabe and I marched up the beach to where he was laying... I wasn't prepared for the sadness.
he looked so cute but at the same time he was very very sad. Dick had heard from a group of people who had been watching him that he had been there for 2 days trying to work his way down the beach.
The people he talked to said they had called the authority's and they had told them just to let him be. If he was strong enough to make it to water he would live but if not then it was his time to die.
Kabe and I took the pictures i couldnt help but feel awful about hit... his giant eyes were staring up at us almost saying "why are you just standing there taking pictures and not doing anything to help."
Kabe pulled me away insisting that we let nature take its course... we walked back to the group and went on with our day. But the thought of the helpless seal never left my mind, and i spoke to everyone in the group about the poor guy. Everyone else insisted that we just leave him be. Everyone except Dick. The entire day we would secretly tell each other ideas we had about how to save him and get him back to the water he so desperately needed to survive.
When we were there earlier in the day it was low tide, i convinced the group that we should go down and check on him at high tide and see if he had gotten himself far enough down to get washed back out to sea. So a group of us marched down the beach to where he was lying and sure enough he was still there, breathing harder than ever, but he did manage to lift his head and give out a grunt... everyone was ready to head back and i decided to wait and watch he tide roll in a bit more. and i noticed Dick go up to where the beach met the ridge and pull out a long stick. He walked over to the seal, I think his plan was to try and roll him into the water, but supprisingly when dick started to walk towards him he lifted his head and let out a growl.
Dick got him turned towards the ocean and "herded" into the waves.
He was pretty pissed off by the stick, but i think he also knew what was going on...
Dick stopped a couple times to let him rest. he slowly backed further and further into the waves until the started to crash around him, and then he started to go into them on his own.
he eventually swam under the waves and out to sea on his own... dick threw down the stick and i ran up to him, hugged him and told him he was my hero. the thing is, i know it was best to let nature take its course, and from what i can see we didn't do anything wrong, we just helped him decided that he wanted to live, and now what happens to him out there in the water is natures deal. At least we did something.
posted by Spinfly at 12:14 PM
9 Comments:
The moral of the story is:
Sometimes, even when you do the best you can, there are those who get pissed.
Even the seals.
Good for you two.
That's caveman compassion.
The very best kind there is, IMHO.
And thanks for the report.
I love you both, as you both know.
At first I agreed with the decision to 'let nature take it's course'... but after talking to Jake about it, I came away with a different perspective:
Aren't humans a part of nature, too? Aren't our emotions and reactions just as natural as any other living thing's?
I'm glad you helped the seal... not because you saved it's life (it will die one day, just like the rest of us), but because it made you happy... and it's a great story.
Thank you both. It felt good. I had a happiness inside me that you don't get to feel very often afterward.
The whole trip was awesome, But that was defiantly a highlight for me. I think we got some pretty hot photos of it too.
Well yeah!! Termes on a beach wielding a big stick and fending off wild animals? How could that NOT be hot?!
Yesterday I saw a large crow (most likely a raven), standing down a small flock of adult turkeys, easily 10 times its weight.
The crow was literally about a foot away from one of the gobblers, and just a yard or two away from the rest.
For some reason that I couldn't discern, the raven seemed to be guarding something,
Who knows what?
Anyway, one of the closest turkeys lunged at the raven and the raven lunged back.
Then, remarkably, for no reason that I could tell, thee same turkey dropped it's behind and did this really strange roll-over in the grass.
After that, all the turkeys walked away leaving the raven marching back and forth in the foreground.
Maybe the strangest bird thingy I ever saw.
There is much that we don't understand.
But getting a sick seal back into the water is something we can all relate to.
They're kind of like dogs, if you think about it.
And I like to think, they would have done the same for you.
Jake's right, Aaron. We're all animals, and as such, part of nature.
And the longer I live, I've come to understand what a really cool and mysterious thing that is.
Love to all.
...it's a mammalist deal...notice how Spin doesn't mention or show the pics of the 13 crabs we hauled out of the sea and ate...yummmmm. All kidding aside, we all rejoiced when the seal swam free.
I'm really glad you helped the seal get back to the ocean. Cuz if the story had ended differently, I would be crying at work.
And nobody likes a weepy attorney.
The crow would have eaten the crabs too. So would the seal. All is well. Crabs and "lahbstahs" are spiders' way of balancing the fear they otherwise inspire on the planet. Yum, indeed. Who knew bugs could taste so good?
My thought on this I guess was that the seal would die of old age or young age in the water and only of young age on the land. Why not give it a chance in the water? I also wanted Bonny to know old adults also have strong feeling too. Sometime even Art/Math guys feel about seals. There are some great photos showing the event by Bonny and she also wrote it up most wonderfully. I was so pleased to be apart of it.... We don't know but maybe our seal is swimming around in the ocean with its friends saying....hey, those humans are pretty cool.............................Dick
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