Tilly: Marine Biologist

Editor's Note:This story has multiple settings, as we began our day in the hospital we ended it at the beach taking a long walk and reflecting on a busy and emotional day, or at least we thought we were going to be able to have some time to reflect on our day. As with any other day in our lives things never work out to be what we plan, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the not so good. Luckily today was for the great and Tilly and I got to help out another animal on its way back to its natural habitat. I hope you enjoy Tilly's tale with her newest friend.

My Monday started out just like any Monday would. Got up, fell asleep in my favorite chair, ate breakie (or as you kids would say breakfast), then went out to do my morning potty and final grooming before our visit to the hospital. I went to the hospital and, of course, it was sooooo hot—Mom (Alison) and I stopped a hundred times for water breaks, but I was still panting uncontrollably. My visit was a bit more hectic this day than ever before. Besides the pediatric ward being packed to the gills with children it seemed as though every family member was visiting when I came to do my rounds. The rooms were packed with people, furniture, equipment—just to name a few of the obstacles. I was not all too thrilled to fit into the rooms with all of those people so I was a bit on the resistant side and stood in the hall standing my ground. But as with any great pair there is only one leader and you guessed it I am the follower, so I went into those rooms and did the best job this bully could do under those circumstances. Alison (my owner) then made me head up to a whole new unit to meet some other kids who are participating in some experimental procedures to battle Cystic Fibrosis! These two men, I say men because they were definitely in high school, maybe even college, were just delighted to see my bullied, wrinkly face. I even jumped into bed with one of them and he massaged and hugged me for what seemed like forever. I love the hugging and the loving—so he could have held me forever and I would have loved every minute of it. We finally left the new ward and my final visit was to my friend Johnny—who because his blood counts were off, once again, was allowed to postpone his chemo treatments for a few more days. He was thrilled but everyone else was concerned....concerned because he is off of his regime for another week, which throws the entire 4 month course of action out of whack. They told him if he does not have the counts by Wednesday they will be initiating another plan of action. Now I am just a dog, but that does not sound good—not at all.

We all left the hospital together and Alison and I went home where I slept on the front deck in the glorious sun and Alison of course got work accomplished. Now this is the point of where my story really begins, everyone. Alison called for me and said lets go for a walk on the beach. The wind is barely blowing at 2-5 knots and the tide is almost at dead low and it was around 3 pm—perfect walking weather. We started our walk like any other day at the beach, full of vigor. I sniffed high and I sniffed low, I ran and ran and then came running right back to Alison. It was glorious and pure perfection. We were coming up to the last jetty before Sandy Hook National Park (a park that was a government barrack and military base, years ago) and Alison kept saying to me, "What's that? Tilly go get that drift wood. Go get it!" Well as we walked up to the "driftwood" all of a sudden a head popped up from that said "driftwood!" So Alison immediately went from "Go get it!" to "Tilly, leash up!!!" The driftwood was not driftwood at all, it is was a seal! Can you believe that—a real harbor seal. She was on the smaller side, leading us to believe that she was young. Alison thought she had a huge bite wound on her side. It was not exactly a bite wound, well it could have been but it was not exactly what we thought—the flipper had been injured underneath—the part we could not get a look at. Alison and I sat about 4-5 feet away and sat down. Alison was talking to the seal, I did not know she spoke seal...hmmm, and I was wiggling and crying because I wanted to see the seal—but Alison was adamant about me sitting still and quiet—I did what I was told. We sat very close to the seal and it never felt threatened—it would lay back and every once in a while it would lift its head and wink at us. Alison saw that she was hurt and she called the local police, they said they were dispatching a car and he would be coming shortly. We sat with the seal, and then Alison said we should walk up to the road so we could flag down the cop. When we turned to walk up the beach—that seal started to follow us. Alison turned around and told the seal, "You wait here, we are getting help. Stay!" And you know what, that seal listened to her—she stopped! We knew at this point the little fellow was injured on the bad side because she would not use that injured flipper at all! We flagged down the officer and walked back up on the beach to show him the seal. The officer kept telling us to stay back, she will bite you. Alison just giggled and said she knew. I mean for crying out loud we know she is a wild animal, but she was showing NO sign what so ever of being threatened or disrupted. The officer called the Animal Control department and also the Marine Mammal rescue unit to come and evaluate the seal. With this information we decided to walk back to the car, and that is just what we did. Once we got to the car Alison decided to make sure that the Animal Control Officer showed up, so we drove back down to the jetty where the seal was sunbathing. The Animal Control Officer was present and Alison went up to her and told her the whole story about her flipper and showed her the photos she had taken of the seal and its injured "wing!" The Officer told us that because Alison proved the seal was injured and in need of attention the Marine Mammal Rescue Unit would be sure to come and rescue this youngster! With that information Alison gave her information to the officer and said, "if they needed anything else to give her a call." We pulled away with a moment of clarity and serenity, we all need help sometimes—you just have to hope that the right person or dog comes along to not only recognize the need, but can help in a none threatening manner.

What an adventure indeed! We will be contacting the animal control officer to find out if everything was properly taken care of—so we will keep you posted.

 Could this be the last adventure that Tilly finds herself in.......maybe, maybe not, you have to keep reading to find out. Be well my friends and tons of bully butt wiggles for you!