September 10, 2013
You may have seen this photo of me holding a baby harbor seal and wondered, ‘what’s that about?’ I’d love to share this part of my story with you.
All my life I wanted to work with animals, but until I was
in my mid-thirties I never pursued it. I think I was too afraid to try, and
having that ‘someday’ dream was better than failing. Then in 1987, when I was
living in Marin County just north of San Francisco, I had a temp job, phoning
clients about their software. I had to call the director of the California
Marine Mammal Center, a hospital for seals and sea lions, and even though my
heart was pounding so loud I could barely speak, I managed to ask her about
volunteer opportunities. She informed me that they had an animal care training
the next week and that I was welcome to attend.
That one phone call changed by life. Within a month I was
deeply in love with seals and sea lions and dedicated to the center. I did
rescues, releases, was the Wednesday night crew leader, a harbor seal pup crew
leader and a docent at Pier 39 when the sea lions took it over. For over three
years, I spent every spare minute at or doing something for the center. I even
got to do night duty with several stranded cetaceans that we had rescued and
brought to Marine World.
It was the seals and sea lions that led me to take my first
Animal Communication class with Penelope Smith in 1988. I figured if I could
find out what was wrong or where it hurt, we could enhance their treatment. But
it wasn’t that easy. Telepathy wasn’t as accepted then as it is now so the
medical staff didn’t believe me. Even though I couldn’t help the seals and sea
lions with my new ability, it started me on a whole new path that has brought
me to where I am today.
I love marine mammals, whether they have flippers or flukes.
I am quite certain that I have had many lives in the sea. For sure I’ve been a
seal and a dolphin, and perhaps even a selkie. I absolutely cannot resist the
smell of a baby harbor seal or the gutteral bellow of an elephant seal, and the
bleat of a sea lion pup melts my heart.
Now I find myself in Florida, with no seals or sea lions in
sight. I miss those guys. It is such a shame that the Caribbean monk seal is
extinct. Recently I heard that the seals in the northeast are slowly expanding
their territory south. Even if they get to Florida in my lifetime, they won’t
be on the Gulf coast. Please say Hi for me the next time you see one, okay?
