Highland seal hospital release - Thursday 24th March 2011
After having to abandon plans to release on Wednesday due to high winds, then seeing a good weather window for the next four days it was decided to go ahead and release Moe and Sunny back to the wild.
Moe and Sunny are both local pups and both arrived in November. Moe having been seperated from his mother, undernourished but with no injuries was found near Dunnett head. Sunny was found the otherside of the bay near Castletown Harbour and had been severely affected by toxic piosoning, we presume it was some sort of petroleum product due to the internal burning and blinding of her eyes. Sunny also had multiple deep bites over the rear of her body.
Moe progressed through the rehab stages with flying colours, progressing as expected.
Sunny needed some major care in the early days and we were relieved to save her sight and also to then be able to reduce the scarring on her cornea to the piont it was barely noticable.
The day dawned lovely with the wind greatly reduced from yesterday so after a quick check of the five day forecast it was decided to release today. Yesterday we had several volunteers on hand, Tracey, Boonie and a local vet Jamie, today though as it was very short notice they couldnt make it today so it was just myself, Heather and Caleb.
After draining the pool, it was catch up time and then into the transport boxes for the short trip to the release site.
We were joined by two curious common seal yearlings who were sitting in the middle of the small bay watching the proceedings from start to finish.
Once out of their boxs they both approached things differently. Moe went straight down the slipway and over the edge, swimming from one end of the harbour to the other, no hanging about. Sunny on the other hand was reluctant to head into the water, sitting on the edge and not wanting to be rushed. Eventually she went in and spent the next half hour playing in the seaweed and gradually venturing further afield.
We wish them all the best.
Jamie Dyer
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