I met up with Corinne, (thanks, Melanie!) who was nice enough to take me to lunch and then drive around Victoria showing me more of the amazing coastline.
I had heard of a particularly special lookout but instead of going up to the lookout we went down to the beach. That's when the fun started.......
We got down to a small cove and there was a woman restraining an injured seal pup. Her male friend and another guy then came down the stairs and said they had been trying to phone someone (Coast Guard) to come and help. The woman had a bite that was bleeding, she and her friend left, so the other man was left with the seal. Neither Corinne nor I wanted to abandon him with the seal so Corinne got on the phone and called the SPCA who put her in touch with Marine Mammal Rescue. We brought her dog kennel down from the car and put the seal in it--not so easy, because he was quite vicious. The MMR told us we needed to get him to the float plane and fly him to Vancouver (no rescue services in Victoria--funding cuts!) Fortunately another guy (visiting from Belgium) came along and the two men carried the kennel with the seal up to her car. Corinne and I then drove to the float plane depot located at the Inner Harbor.
Her kennel is cloth and they wouldn't take a cloth kennel on the plane so they gave us a hard sided small kennel and told us to transfer the seal (remember he is vicious and quite aggressive). We asked for gloves and all they had were thin latex gloves. Not a good solution! Fortunately Corinne had some heavier gloves in the car and a pair of leather ones that I wore under the thin latex. And..no one would help us because the staff at the float plane office are not allowed to handle live cargo! Between us we directed him out of one kennel and into the other and it was quite a sight. I was trying to push him one way and Corinne was between my legs moving the kennel in the seal's direction. I wish someone would have been there to film it--the blink leading the blind.
Corinne checked in with MMR the next day and said they named the pup Rutherford and he was being cared for. Talk about team work!
I had heard of a particularly special lookout but instead of going up to the lookout we went down to the beach. That's when the fun started.......
We got down to a small cove and there was a woman restraining an injured seal pup. Her male friend and another guy then came down the stairs and said they had been trying to phone someone (Coast Guard) to come and help. The woman had a bite that was bleeding, she and her friend left, so the other man was left with the seal. Neither Corinne nor I wanted to abandon him with the seal so Corinne got on the phone and called the SPCA who put her in touch with Marine Mammal Rescue. We brought her dog kennel down from the car and put the seal in it--not so easy, because he was quite vicious. The MMR told us we needed to get him to the float plane and fly him to Vancouver (no rescue services in Victoria--funding cuts!) Fortunately another guy (visiting from Belgium) came along and the two men carried the kennel with the seal up to her car. Corinne and I then drove to the float plane depot located at the Inner Harbor.
Injured seal pup
After the successful transfer
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