The season's first seal release!

A slippery, bouncy slide of a truck ride to a place they likely don't remember...a really big swimming pool with waves and living fish! Luckily, the "big guys" (Stockholm, Pasadena, Berlin, and Muncie) have plenty of blubber to act as built-in shock absorbers.  They didn't seem to mind the bumpy ride at all, only that they couldn't easily see out the windows.

...a little trepidation

...and away they go

A good day

To all who are wondering, Kelowna is almost back to normal pup health.  She is breathing well, has a normal temperature, and is biting us as often as possible.  We are now observing her closely to confirm that there was no brain damage during her feverish episodes as she seems to have changed her behavior rather drastically.  

Our newest admittee is named Dar es Salaam and has a melon head:)  Hopefully, the unfortunate head to body ratio is part of her awkward adolescence and not a sign of a greater problem.  

I have now been trained on the pools.  This means that sometimes during a feed, I go on my own out to one of our outdoor swimming pools.  I pull over-sized raincoats and fishing pants on and drag a big bucket of fish up the ramp.  Precariously, I climb over the fence attempting to hold onto my sloshing boots which are often several sizes too big while I scan the deck for any sick seals.  I am usually disturbing their mid-day nap and have to step in my goofy garb carefully amongst the pile of sunbathing pinnipeds, like a hippo on point shoes.   As they begin to detect the nearby presence of fish, the grunts begin.  Some go straight for the boots, chewing away.  Others dive anxiously into the water knowing that is the only way to get fish and the sneaky few pretend to be sleeping through it all until I turn my back, at which point, they go straight for the bucket.  It is a mess of fun!  Every time that I struggle into the absurdly ill-fitting outfits,  I feel like I have attained one of my dreams.  

The caretaker in me

As I was stuffing vitamins down the gills of a dead, slimy herring today, I realized how surprised some of you would be to see me getting down and dirty with piles of smelly fish. Well I do and I am actually pretty good at it.   Around here, I am known as someone who can handle the gross stuff.  (I drew the line yesterday at pulling the heads off of living mealworms for the bat. Our head vet had to do it, but the bat didn't make it anyway.)   

So far today, I worked with the seals from 7:30 this morning until 5:30PM.  As everyone else was then on a formal shift, I was recruited to jump in the rescue vehicle with one of our fellows to go searching for a fawn who had just been hit by a car.  We scrabbled through the blackberries receiving many an odd look from locals as we trespassed their overgrown properties and searched.  I found nothing, but Heather managed to find not one, but two fawns and three does!  One was dragging a back left leg while leading the whole deer troupe up the path and away seemingly unperturbed by his new three legged status.  As fawns do not traditionally do well under the abrupt care of humans and we can't restrain his leg long enough to heal, we left him in the care of his presumed mom and hope for the best.  Oh, and my adventures for the day are not done.  I am on shift for the late night feed so I get more seal time yet.  

For everyone who is reading this; please send your thoughts, energy, and prayers to Kelowna, a beautiful female seal pup who is fighting pneumonia and a lethal strain of herpes.  She has been struggling for almost 48 hours now and we are doing everything we can to hold on to her.  She is full of IV lines, gets her temp checked on the hour and is under 24 hour supervision.  Herpes is common for newborn seals and most of the pups that we have here were prematurely birthed so they are predisposed to it.  We have already lost a few to Herpes, but with every day Kelowna has more chance of pulling through.  Typically, it either kills or antibodies are successfully produced within 6 days.  I stand by her and breathe with her as often as I can.  

more salt.

Random salty snapshots

The farm stands

The cutest sight I have ever seen is the local farm stand done Salt Spring style.  They can be found frequently along every major road here.  Most homes are farms of some size on the island and to make a little extra money or the bulk of their income, folks set their wares out each day at these little wooden huts towards the end of their driveways. There is a money box based on the honor system and you can buy everything from eggs to flowers here.  

Fulford Day

Though it felt like a neighborhood block party, Fulford Day is a major annual celebration for people of the island.  It is centered around Fulford, the town on the southern tip of the island (my favorite place thus far), and consists of music, games, home-grown food, and general goofiness.  I don't really know why it began, but this was its twentieth anniversary and people were really excited.  

Wonderfully, we were some of the only non-residents at the celebration which meant I got a better view of the real island folk.  Lots of kids and young families decked out in high-end outdoor gear, but not necessarily showered.  Very slow moving happy people and tons of curiosity about any newcomers daring enough to attend a local Fulford Day.

Days off.

Thursdays seem to be my day off around here.  I wake up whenever I want which usually means that I, and Crystal (my room-mate who has the same day off) finally get off the property around noon.  Then we explore.  

Last week, we hitch-hiked the island.  Despite the lack of vehicles to use at the centre and the secluded nature of our little seal bubble, I was the first to suggest hitching as a viable transportation option.  Crystal hesitantly agreed to the thumbing adventure and we set out down the driveway.  We got many rides while we wound our way from one end of the island to the other...and back.  Our very first driver was, in fact, possibly the least tree-lovin guy on the island.  We jumped in his massive blue king-cab truck (with trailer) and listened to him discuss his construction projects (aka sub-division plots).  He was a nice man, frustrated from the other end of the city planning spectrum and it was fascinating to meet him amidst all the lavendar smelling, dreadlocked, organic farmers we usually cross paths with.   

Throughout the day, we had many adventures, the most exciting of which entailed getting locked in a closet sized gift shop with two hysterical teenage girls, the shop's owner, and some random male seasonal tourist.  It felt like being stuck in an elevator though it wasn't because the door lock malfunctioned...the locking part was deliberate in fact.  No, it was because there was a large 19 year old male tourist spouting drunken garble loudly and violently while stumbling around the ferry landing.  I was trying not to giggle thinking to myself that I listened to this happen at least once a night from my State St. apartment in Bellingham, but these folks were really scared.  Ahhh, the tranquil norm of Canadian island life.

Yesterday, round number two included a few stolen animal shots for you folks back home because the patients here are so god d&#@n cute plus a (driving) trip to Ruckle Park, the largest designated park on the island, and dinner out. 

Seals at night

Day 3 - Tel Aviv comes to Salt Spring

Today, I tube-fed a baby seal for the first time in my life and he was admirably cooperative.  His name is Dubai and he changed my life as tubing is a relatively advanced medical procedure and doing it on a wild baby seal is in a world of its own.  I got my daily dose of adrenaline not to mention a pile and a half of fish mash (you can imagine what that is) from head to toe from many another seal during the same feeding.  Some of them spit it, some snort it, and others just bite so hard on the tube that it shoots right back at us.  One never knows whether this is deliberate or not, but I have my suspicions.

Anyway, I have now acquired skills of pushing, burping, tubing, and preparing herring fish mash and fish cream.  Oh, and I am now a novice pharmacist as well.  I think this place has got their training down as I have only worked two full shifts and we now have 59 seal pups (one came in today and I named her Tel Aviv) as well as two owls, two fawns, some raccoons, gulls, and many swallows.   As it is 7PM and I am exhausted, I am headed to bed with my laptop and some Kerouac, not to be seen 'til the morn.

The picture above is the red light district, aka the seal pup quarantine area. 

I have arrived in the land of the seals and all is well.  The seals are mewing for food outside my window, my young enthusiastic room-mate from Edmonton, Alberta is teaching me about chinchillas and crickets, and I work my first shift tomorrow at noon.

I brought you all a few pics to accompany my first entry.  On the top is the one wonderful sunflower to answer my plea that some yellow be shown before I leave my house's gorgeous gardens.  My house-mate planted those giant sunflowers about 4 months ago and I have been hoping and praying all along that I would get to see a bloom before leaving.  Come the day of my departure, one appeared:)

The middle photo is simply the expansive BC sky captured from my blistery front row seat aboard the ferry.  I sailed towards Salt Spring on the sunset ship appropriately named "Seal" and my new local friend, Mike, and I chatted over tea and wind as we left the mainland behind.

Last, but not least, the seals.  My friends, that mess of color and light is the quarantined seal pup quad.  I have decided to call it the red light district as eery red heat lamps hang above the mewing patients and glow throughout the forest that is now my home.  The seals get fed four times every 24 hours and they beg all of the time in between by making these weird mewing/moaning/almost barking sounds.   They are disgustingly cute...as expected and I have already gotten to touch one.  He really did feel and look like a stuffed animal, even up close.  This year all incoming seals are getting named after cities around the world so we have everyone from Jaipur to Dubai and I may get to name the next.  (I guess that I will be learning geography as well as seal care.)

Anyway, I know some of you are dying to see where the heck I took off to, so here is your sneak peek.  I hope that you enjoy and more is to come.  First shift tomorrow at noon- seal feeding.