Seals (not the Navy type)

The week was spent hamster sitting. Smudge is a very pretty hamster who loves to spend all day in bed, rising at 3am to rummage noisily around, and presents herself for hand feeding in her bedroom, or salon. Perky, on the other hand, is a very fat hamster with beautiful chocolate fur, and who can waddle exceedingly fast through his tubes to the feeding bowl, where he expects a brief petting before going to stuff his cheek pouches.

Saturday, we went to Chris’ mum and dad. Traffic was slow, but moving, which was... okay. We had a lovely afternoon, with good food and good company. And a perfect journey back.

Sunday we went to see mum and dad, and were treated to a Corizo sausage based dinner which was very nice and along with good company, a lovely day was had.

Monday was a very, very long day. I had to leave work early, so I worked through lunch and left at four thirty. After a pit stop at home, feeding the kits etc, I went up to Chatham, and looked for a place to park outside the Rebound centre. None was immediately forthcoming, however, sitting in my car, I was accosted by very mature gentleman who spoke to me as if he knew me, along with my husband Mick and three children, one of whom was named Molly that I was obviously picking up. I just grinned inanely until he went to move his Merc for me. Oh-kaaay.

So, on that note I went in to attend a course of Child Protection and Safeguarding which was very interesting.

We overran past nine, and I dived (no pun intended!) down to the RAFA Club for a meeting with the current Treasurer. I informally accepted taking over the Treasurer position, although I have to be formally voted in at the AGM in November, so that could all go horribly wrong.

Eventually, I pootled on home, and crashed into bed. Sometimes one wonders if one has bit off more than one can chew.

Thursday was fun. It’s very rare that I get a call from BDMLR, as I’m too far from the coast to be top of the call list, but being central, I was a good call for a seal relay. A common seal pup had been rescued at Herne Bay, underweight, alone and struggling to swim, and needed to be transported to the RSPCA at Fairlight outside Hastings.

One of the rescuers was able to bring her as far as Ashford, so we met in the car park at McDonalds (I knew that place had to be good for something!). Unfortunately, they’d managed to borrow a cage that was built for a full grown St Bernards, and the guy brought it down in the back of a pickup, and the cage has no way in hell ever going to fit in the back of my little coupe. So, we convoyed back to my house and transferred the seal to my cat cage, which is in fact a dog cage big enough for three cats.

The seal herself was just gorgeous. She was very tired, but very alert and very well behaved, so long as you didn’t go near her front flippers in which case she snapped. I wish I’d taken a picture, but I was kinda in ‘Rescue’ mode, so at the time, I was only thinking in terms of keeping her wet, cool, aired and comfortable. A passerby had a good look and asked us if the seal was ours, and we both myself and the rescue guy must have looked like stunned goldfish. Er, no. We’re just in the process of rescuing her, ma’am. Oh, said the passerby and carried on her way.

Having got her in the cat cage along with plenty of saturated towels, and transferred her to my car, the guy returned to Herne Bay, while me, my car, Ghostie, and the seal went to Fairlight. We tippy-toed ever so gently. It was a forty five minute drive and we stopped twice en route to check that the seal was staying wet and cool. She snorted when I put the air con on, and snuffled when I decided to open the windows instead, so I guess she preferred the open windows. She dozed whilst I was driving, but when we stopped she blinked sleepily at me and woke up, looking around and nosing the water I sprayed over her.

We arrived at Mallydams RSPCA centre, and Richard who was running the place, helped me get her out of my car and into the centre, and I helped him weigh her and decant her into one of the cubicles. He let me observe during triage, and it seems that she’s about four weeks old, and two thirds the weight she should be. She shouldn’t yet be weaned from mum but with the weight loss had probably been abandoned three or four days. She had bitten front flippers, probably by another seal, one of which was horribly swollen.

They gave her a heavy shot of antibiotics and some painkillers to tide her over until the vet arrived. I had to leave just before they medicated her, but they were optimistic, so long as there was no secondary infection or lugworm. Assuming she does make it, because of her age it’ll be a long time before she’s able to be released back into the wild, but one can hope.