DOLPHINS
Yes I was raised in Miami, and yes, the Miami Dolphins are my favorite football team, but this is about real really wet mammals called dolphins. When we moved to San Pedro Ca, we lived about 3 miles from Marineland. Jerry was almost 3, and I wanted my child(ren) to grow up with the same respect and awe I had of Mother Nature. I had already taken Jerry to a grunion run--that is when the grunion come up on the beach, on a moonless night to lay their eggs. We had been to real tidal pools and I taught him about all the creatures that lived in these small pools when the tide was out.
I was not working so I would take my son to the LA Museum and of course Marineland. He got in free, and for a reasonable price I got a year pass. We saw the shows once, and then spent all our trips with the animals while everyone was watching the shows. Our favorite place was the dolphin tank, where we would spend hours talking to the dolphins, looking through their intelligent eyes and "petting" them. I had been touched by one particular dolphin named Merry. She would look deep into my eyes and I would feel a gentle warmness run through my soul.
After about 2 mths of visiting them 2-3 times a week, they would actually jump in the air and greet us. It was so amazing that my little 3 yr old son could spend so much time with them and always wanted to go back for more. (he definately takes after his mom!!!)
We were down with the flu, and didn't get to go see our friends for about a week and a half, and I knew Merry was going to give birth soon, so as soon as we could we jumped in the car and went off for a visit. We were greeted by Merry, and she showed off her 2 day old son Merlin to us. We were so happy we cried. We had been there so much the staff had "adopted" us and we got to go where the public wasn't allowed.
We were so excited we decided to run back to the house and get my husband. As I was speeding down Pacific Coast Highway (better known to the locals as "earthquake road"), I got pulled over for speeding. When the officer came up to my car and asked me what the hurry was, both Jerry and I sang out "Merlin is born...Merlin is born.."He then asked me to explain, and after I explained the whole story, he said "nobody could make up a story like that one, this is your lucky day..I'm not going to give you a ticket, but you must promise not to speed the rest of the way home." I agreed and we brought Jerry's dad back to see our little Merlin.
SOME OF OUR BEST FRIENDS
ARE WHALES
Also at Marineland, we became close friends of Orkey and Corkey the killer whales, along with a few pilot whales. Orky and Corkey were our (and everyone elses') favorite whales. It is one thing to look into a dolphin's eyes, and another to look into a whale's eyes. The dolphins were my favorites, but the whales were strong, almost ancient souls. They too would greet us when we came to visit, and we even got to feed them and stroke them.
We found out that the whales "ran" past San Pedro on their way to Mexico, and even though we lived on top of the "hill", we found out that because Steve was in the service, we could rent out the house at the lighthouse on the cliff for only $5 per day for 2 days. We made our reservations for the time of the whale runs. I had never seen anything more spectacular as watching a whale breaching (jumping out of the water), and we got to see it close up. I also went to Long Beach during the run, and they were breaching only a few hundred feet from shore.
BOBBIE THE SEAL
One day I was sitting at home while Jerry and Steve went to the beach. When they got home Jerry came running up to me and said they saw a sick seal on the beach. He was crying cause the seal was just a baby and sick, and people were throwing things at it.
Almost before Steve walked in the door I was grabbing a blanket and heading out the door with Jerry. Steve asked where I was going, and I told him we were all going back to the beach to rescue the baby seal. He new me better than to ask how or why and we drove down to the beach.
When we got there I saw that the poor thing was suffering and knew I had to do something. I told Steve we had to get it to Marineland right away. He just looked at me and said "just how do you plan on doing that??". I threw him the blanket and told him to throw the blanket over the seal and put him in the back of my stationwagon. He wasn't too happy with the idea, but he knew I was right. We got the seal in the car, I rode in the back with it talking softly and stroking it. The seal got his head out from under the blanket and just looked at me with those sorrowful eyes.
I told Steve to drive to Marineland, but it was closed for the season and had been taken over by Hanna Bar-bera and the front guards didn't know me and said that we could not go in and that they did not take in sick seals. I was really angry, I had been in the back where the treated sick sea mammals but the guard wouldn't even call staff to get it approved, and told us to leave.
Now what were we going to do!! I asked Steve to drive us to the all night animal hospital, but he was tired and just wanted to go home, so I told him we would keep it in the bathtub until we could get it some help. Jerry, of course, really liked that idea, but Steve said he was going to drive home and the seal was my problem.
Steve made Jerry stay with him and I drove to the animal hospital. The vet and assistant came out to help me get the little 75 lb baby seal out of the car. Everything was fine until they put him on the table and then the seal tried to bite them. I asked them to let me handle it, and they were surprised that the seal made no attack against me. I held its head in my arms and the vet got ready to take its temperature, and stopped and said "what is the proper temperature for a seal?", no one knew. I told him the names of a few staff members at Marineland, and asked if he could try to reach them. He finally got through to one, who just happened to take care of sick seals, and when the vet told him my name, he said to drive on back and they would let me in.
I stopped at home first and picked up Jerry. They let us through the gate and down to the sick pens. My friend John on the staff looked the seal over and found out it had lungworm, a fatal disease of seals who are not treated for it. He said I had gotten it there in time to save its life. At Marineland I was known as the Dolphin Lady, so John asked me what my first name was, when I told him it was Bobbie, he said "thats perfect because this is a male, and we will name him after you."
After the seal, Bobbie, was settled in for the night, John took Jerry and me on a private tour of the new Marineland. He also gave me a special pass so I could come in and check up on my little friend. Four mths later, Bobbie was set free back in the wild,normal and healthy.
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