a few more days, a few more seals

So the past few days brought a few more seals and a little more sunburn. It all started Wednesday afternoon with a trip to the nudie beach. Although I made a point of grabbing my sunglasses before I left, it turns out I didn't need them. The helpful nudists had put on pants before we got there. Our animal was an entangled sea lion, sitting in the tideline, so as the coward who likes to stay dry, I mostly just watched. Even on the steep hike back out, I let the boys do the heavy lifting. Getting myself up the hill was unfortunately heavy lifting enough.

Our patient, which the not-naked nudists named Untied, was 36 kg. Since his twine neck tie was pretty simple, vet staff allowed us to cut it off on site. Though I'm a chicken when it comes to throwing the net, I was first to volunteer to take him down. Honestly, it wasn't much of a feat (we got to get him stoned first and someone else helped hold down his front flippers), but it seemed pretty exciting at the time. I found the biggest, wettest towel, and got a decent wrap around his head but I felt very alone in the second just before jumping on him.

Untied looks pretty much the same in his "after" pictures. I like this one as you can see (sort of) that he's essentially as tall as I am. The camera couldn't capture it, so you'll just have to believe me that he was feeling notably more chipper the next morning. He willingly ate his fish offer (having been too stoned the night before) and then rolled around scratching at his healing neck and the presumably itchy tar patches on his shoulder and hip. They'll put him in one of the salt water pools in Sausalito, no doubt, and he'll be out again in no time.

Thursday night, as Untied was probly first arriving in Sausalito, I picked up Fiesty, a 16 kg yearling, from a friend who lives closest to the drive on beach. We were both off schedule, but the day's official rescue crew was up north relocating another little yearling they'd just caught (which was actually Fiesty's same size). I didn't see their animal, so I can't say for sure, but I feel if you can catch a sea lion you can keep it. So I successfully made the case that we should keep Fiesty, if only for a couple weeks of free fish. Half the size of Untied, he lived up to his name and was a handful to restrain. Still, I was glad to have him. He was good practice for my tubing partner and he got us up bright and early for our next rescue.

Friday, when we should have been feeding Fiesty, we had the good fortunate of catching up with Maren. We'd first tried for this 30 kg juvenile on Wednesday, on the way back in with Untied. We spent some time chasing her up and down the beach in Avila, but she was crafty and stayed just far enough off shore to mock us. We got another call on her at sunset on Thursday (right after I got back into town with Fiesty) but the folks I sent couldn't find her. It turns out yet another one of our volunteers stumbled across her independently on Thursday night and went looking for her first thing Friday. Obviously she was still there as now she's here. I had to use this artsy shot of her as all her photos are creepy due to her milky eye discharge. I'm used to gummy and crusty, but gummy and wet is just gross. I'm not as optimistic for Maren as I am for Untied and Fiesty, but at least she's got some sort of a chance now.

Friday afternoon I chose a nap over a rescue and missed helping out with a big boy on the drive on beach. They're always magnificent, those adult male sea lions, but again I would have definitely been more spectator than participant so I'm happy with my choice. He was seizing, so I'm concerned about today's crew (as seizing seals often come in clusters) but not enough to give up my day off. Erik's home and though he's mostly doing his thing (yard work) and I'm mostly doing mine (napping and studying for the LSAT), it still feels like quality time.

Besides, I'm on again tomorrow...