Sunday, June 22, 2014

Spending my week with an injured sea lion "Bob"

This past week went by so fast and at the same time seems like it was so long and so long ago. But I will never again walk the beach without thinking about Bob the sea lion. On Tuesday morning Everardo came bursting in the door and yelled for me to grab the camera to take pictures of a sea lion on the beach who seemed content to sit and not be scared off. I had been about to go on my exercise morning dancing/walk down the beach with the dogs so I was almost ready to go. It was about 9:30 or 10am, and we went back to where Poppi saw it, and it was still sitting there. But he sagged, and decided to lay down. We thought maybe he was injured or sick and came to shore to die, but I had never seen that; always before they were dead when they hit the beach.

I took some shots of Everardo next to him, and he reached out and touched his back- the sea lion looked at him but didn't leave or lash out or anything like that. I felt kinda funny (funny wierd not funny ha ha) taking his picture if he was going to die, but I did it. Then Everardo took the camera and I walked further up the beach starting my exercise. I had planned to exercise way up the beach because in front of our place we were having red tide, and it was so yucky.Ok here's what I found on google:

Red tide is a common name for a phenomenon known as an algal bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms) when it is caused by a few species of dinoflagellates and the bloom takes on a red or brown color. Red tides are events in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column, resulting in coloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas.

Some red tides can be toxic, but here apparently it is not. I say "apparently" because it was what I was told....but I get told lots of things here that do not turn out to be the case ha ha. However I seen birds in the water all week and people fishing both on the shore and from fishing boats, (oh and lots of digs) so I think it is probably true- that the red tide here is not toxic. It makes the both the water and the shore ugly, filled with so much yucky stuff, and it stunk as well. I really didn't want the dogs swimming in because it was stinky and then they'd need a shower after, so I walked way up the beach to do my exercise routine.

So- my hour was almost up and I was dancing my way back towards the sea lion. My intention was to stop and see him again, and then...what? I don't know. So I came up to him, and leaned in and talked to him softly. Asked him how he felt, talked about how pretty the sky was, whatever came into my tiny brain. And then...... a single tear fell from his eye and rolled down his face. I simply sat down next to him. I started crying as well. I told him how sorry I was. I could not leave him. As it turns out I stayed with him from about 11am until 6pm. A woman came down from her house right behind us, just a little while after I sat down; she had actually seen the sea lion the nite before, just before dark. Her name was Meena she told me, and she said she saw him in the very shallow water near the shore and had tried to get him to go back out in the ocean, but he didn't go. Then in the morning the tide had gone out so he was out of the water, sitting & laying in the sand. By then I had already reached out to him, and touched his head, which seemed to be ok. So I was stroking and petting him and talking to him. She began to do the same thing....and she and I began to talk.

Well as it turned out my husband had talked to a guy he saw working by another house near the sea lion and got that guy to call PROFETA, which is a federal group responsible for the shoreline and came to tell us they would be there soon. I knew I was not leaving this poor baby. (yeah we thought it was a she, and very young because she was not huge- at least not as huge as a sea lion can be. Later we found out he was a he, and about 8 years old). Both Meena and I waited for PROFETA, who showed up about 2:30...yeah so not all that "soon". Well by then the tide has started to come up, and that's when we saw the blood. Not a lot, just a thin stream that seemed to pool a little down by his "feet" and would wash away each time the waves came in. These were small waves, they didn't cover him, but he needed to keep raising his head. The PROFETA guy took alot of photos and they talked on the phone, and decided with our input that he had an injury under one of his front flippers. Then he said this other group was coming, marine mammals people or something, but they would wait for them. I said, ok well I am going to go home and change my clothes and come back, and Meena thought that was a good idea so she did it too. I told him to pet our baby and talk to her...he said of course- that they cared about him. So I went home and took a shower as fast as I could, and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since I hadn't eaten all day. I got back about the same time as Meena, and then, to my surprise...kinda....they told us they had to leave to another problem area, but don't worry, the people would be there soon. Luckily I got his phone number.

About 4:30 still nobody had come and we were worried the offices would close so we called them. They guy said oh yeah- let me call them so call me back in a minute. I called back and he said sorry, everyone is too busy, they will come tomorrow. I got mad and said maybe he won't make it! He hung up on me. Well the tide went back out, and then there was no more blood. My husband called me about 6pm and told me to come home. I told our baby I loved him and he would be ok, and I went home. Meena stayed with him until almost dark. The next morning Everardo went out around 8am and checked, came back and told me he was still alive so I went down to sit with him. Around 9:30 a truck drove up and a lady got out and took some more pictures. She was from the marine mammal people- so I tok a picture of her truck door that had a logo on it. She got on the phone, and then told me (all in Spanish) that a veterinarian was coming soon. Then she left. Well I sat back down to talk and pet my baby sea lion, knowing it might be hours. So I was very surprised when another truck showed up on the beach around 11:30. It was PROFETA again, but they had a woman with them who turned out to be the vet- her name was Alejandra. She spoke pretty good English and asked me to tell her everything I knew from the moment it started and to not leave out any details.

So I told her, and then Meena showed up. (we decided I was early shift and she was late shift).  Alejandra told us after looking carefully, that first, she was a he. Then that he was about 8 years old and we could tell that by his fur around his nose and mouth beginning to turn white, and that the tuft of hair/fur on the very top of his head was something a male developed after about 5 years of age. Females do not have it. Then she showed us some marks on his back and said she believed he was caught in a fishing net for an extended period and that was one reason he was so fatigued. But there was something else. We had told her that the nite before, when he was still in the surf, he had what we called convulsions, but she called seizures. We thought he was dying when that happened "death throes" Meena called it, and she and I hugged and cried as we thought it was the end. But then he had calmed down. Alejandra said that he was poisoned by fish who had eaten in a "yellow tide" further north, and that it wasn't toxic to the fish, but it was to mammals. (I think that's how she put it). That our red tide was ok, but yellow was not. That it could cause seizures, and death. So she gave him a shot, of an antibiotic called domoic acid to fight off the poison. (Meena later googled it and said the symptons fit our baby boy exactly). So in the end I think Alejandra saved him, but I believe our constant comfort made a big difference. Then Alejandra told us to go home and let Bob sleep. That he needed to heal.
Oh she also said the blood was from these tiny sea "creatures" that bite at the wounds on sea life...and yeah they were biting at our feet and ankles....and that why he stopped bleeding after the tide went down. She told us it would be better if he stayed on the shore. We did not go home right away; we stayed with him and chatted with each other. When the tide came back up...he went in it! We tried to push him towards shore but he wasn't having any. But he was so weak, he could barely hold his head up when the waves came, but he let us, carefully hold his head up. The tide finally started to go back out. It got late and I went home, but Meena stayed, and she made Bob a pillow out of kelp ha ha, but we think it helped.
I forgot to say when Alejandra first came she warned us about touching him; that if he was healthy he would never do that, that maybe he was carrying a disease, could we at least wear gloves since we would not stop petting him?? haha. I think the first lady told her- that woman was shocked when she saw me sitting so close, talking to him and stroking his head, scratching his neck and belly when he sat up and stretched toward me.He nuzzled my arm many times. I didn't put my face in close for a nuzzle, but my dog Hazel did, and they touched noses. Sam sniffed around Bob with concern, and Bob was ok with it. He knew we cared about him, Meena and I and the dogs. Both days people wandered by and sometimes stopped for a minute but never got as close as we did. Oh and I also forgot to say that the Mexican guys that worked nearby named him Bob so we thought that was cute and Bob he stayed- I had been calling him Baby Boy and Meena was calling him Hefalump...so Bob was a good choice.

So anyway we had no intention of leaving Bob or not touching him. He leaned into us, he looked in our eyes. Oh and I googled sea lions; they don't actually cry. The have tear ducts that let tears flow to keep salt out of their eyes. They can be out of the water for a couple of weeks, that they can go a week without eating, that they can hold their breath for at least 15 minutes and maybe twice that long according the the article you read. That they can close and seal their noses to keep water out. That they swim about 10-12 miles an hour but can do a short spurt at 25 miles an hour.

Ok- Thursday morning. I get there and Bob is sleeping. Like a deep sleep. Actaully the nite before when Meena made the pillow he was sleeping and snoring! So we think the medicine broke the fever- or the poison, and then he could sleep- like when you are really sick and you toss and turn, but when the fever finally breaks you fall into a deep sleep? So I sat there for a while, but decided to do my exercise and let him sleep. Later I returned and Meena was there, but she had done the same as me...watched him and then left. Then I had to go to Ensenada with Everardo but about 3pm Meena called me to tell me Bob was in the surf and rolling over and over, sitting up, but not leaving. When I got back it was almost 5pm, and we watched him do this until about 6:30. We found out it was how he cooled himself off. Meena had called Alejandra, whom i had spoken to early in the morning to report on Bob's condition. Alejandra couldn't come but said she's come back on Friday and give him another shot. She said she could only come with PROFETA- it is the Mexican law, that they have to document and "direct" her even though she is doing the analysis and the work. She is a volunteer, and told us how they really want a rehab center for the injured animals like Bob, but here in Mexico it is hard to get the funding. She was very happy that we were helping Bob, and after the first day didn't bother to lecture us that we needed gloves- she knew we loved Bob and that was that.

Well about 6:30 Bob finally stopped playing in the water and lay down. We decided to go home, so we both told him we loved him and see him later. Then Bob surprised us and made us each soooo happy. When we said goodbye, he turned around and took some silly sea lion steps towards us and stretched his neck out to us, and nuzzled each of our arms. Now that made me cry. Meena told me earlier when she came and he was asleep that she sat nearby and he opened his eyes and moved closer to her! Pretty cool eh? Then after he nuzzled us, he turned back so he was looking at the water, and laid down. We went home...and as I got a little further away I looked back and saw hin walk up the beach out of the water and throw himself down. Later a woman knocked on Meena's door to say she thought the sea lion was dead- Meena hurried out, but Bob was back in a deep sleep. She called me to tell me, but we decided he had recovered alot, had a good play, and was now exhausted and needed the sleep.

Friday morning I headed out- Bob was gone! I found out that meena had gotten up at 5:30 am to pee and looked out her window and he was still there, but by 8am he was gone, gone with tide.This was a good thing, a great thing!! But I was as sad as I was happy. Hmmm what had we done in our lives before Bob? Meena felt the same. But what a gift. What a gift to be able to be in service to another living thing. To comfort him. I know he knew we were there to help. I know he came to know us. I know he appreciated us being there. I know we helped to save his life. He certainly changed my life. How lucky I nothing else to do so I could spend 3 days with this beautiful animal, comfort him when he was hurting and probly scared. Cheer him on. How cool was all that..I am so lucky, I always think that!

Well- later we found out something that initially pissed me off, and Meena was so upset, but I have changed my mind about it now. She found out that a guy who works for this camp...like a maintenance guy, walked out early in the morning with this dog named Lucas. Well Bob knew Hazel and Sam and was very comfortable with them; I believe they communicated with each other thru looks and noses ha ha. But I guess Lucas scared Bob awake, and lunged at him, and Bob jumped up and ran into the ocean and was gone. I was so mad that it had ended that way. I wanted to wave goodbye to Bob as he disappeared in the surf, raising a flipped (yeah right?). But after thinking about it for awhile- Meena and I agreed it was a good thing- because around here the sea lion does not have alot of friends. I'm sorry to say that the fishermen shoot them! Yeah shoot them! Because they are in competition for the fish. It is illegal of course...but that doesn't mean too much. So Bob being comfortable around people would not be a good thing. So it is what it is. Funny I miss Bob. Meena and I have emailed each other a few times and will trade pictures that we both took as he got steadily better. Alejandra was sooo happy. She thanked us profusely and told us to keep her number. We thanked her for caring and helping Bob. I'm hoping Meena and I find some other common ground- maybe simply a cup of coffee, but you kinda get to know someone spending 3 straight days with them, you know- but sometimes it's like when you take a class and really get along with someone, and then it's over and you never talk to them again. It could be a Spanish class we found may end up being available to us right here in this camp neighborhood, so we'll see. Oh and the red tide is gone- for now anyway.....yipee.

So...this is the story of Bob the sea lion. I feel like I left out a million details, all my emotions, trying to get him to turn around in the surf, feeling protective, laughing at his antics, learning about sea lions, my initial sadness and feeling so helpless, wanting to punch the next person in the face who said...it's life....and walk away. And really? How many people get to have a relationship- however brief, with a sea lion. I like writing about here, because trying to tell people out loud felt weird somehow...like I was saying "look at me-look what I'm doing" when what I was trying to say was about how cool Bob was, what he looked like, what he felt like, how he moved, how he breathed, being able to be part of it. Does that make sense? I love you Bob. I hope you swim far from these damn fishing nets, catch tons of fish, roll and jump and play. Catch ya on the flip side!



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