Experience: a baby seal broke into our house

We moved to Mount Maunganui, a small seaside community in New Zealand's beautiful Bay of Plenty, 10 years ago for my husband Phil's work as a biologist marine. I had seen seals around Pilot Bay, which is near here. Sometimes you see them on the rocks, sunning or playing, but usually on their own territory.

It was a dark winter morning in August of this year when the seal arrived. At 5:50 a.m., I left the house to go do fitness. I walked down to the car parked in the driveway and heard a grunt. I thought our naughty cat, Coco, must have chased a dog under the car.

I jumped in the car to avoid getting my ankles pinched, and I moved slowly, but then I felt the car brush against something. When I came out to take a look I couldn't see anything and thought it must have moved on. Then, when I sat back down, I saw a baby seal in the headlights.

I thought, "Oh my God", but I didn't. panicked: the ocean is just down the driveway and I thought it would find its way back. I went to practice and made everyone laugh when I said, "Sorry I'm late, there was a bucket under the car."

I didn't think again until I got home. As I walked through the garage, I noticed that our buckets had been moved. I wondered if it was the seal, but dismissed it because I didn't think it could fit through the cat flap, which was the only way into the garage. But I was wrong. When I opened the door to the house, I touched something and heard this flip-flip-flip-flip sound, and I thought, "God, that's the seal."< /p>

It was so cute, like an adorable soft toy with big wet eyes. Part of me wanted to keep it, but the seals smell bad. I was aware that it was a wild animal, and even though it was cute, I didn't want to know how sharp those teeth were.

He told me has watched. I retired and went to see the children. They were sleeping. I phoned Phil, who was returning home from a work trip, thinking he wasn't going to believe what was happening.

The seal stayed in home for another half hour or so. I was sitting near the bottom of the stairs and I heard him growl and huff. I stuck my head in our guest bedroom only to find that she had made her way there and onto the couch. He was trying to get on the standing desk. I said, "Oi, no!" He turned and looked at me, and settled down, which was very civilized.

We called a ranger from the Department of Conservation, and someone came to get the seal. It's sad to see a wild creature wrapped in a net, but I was comforted after the guard said it would be released in a sheltered area away from the dogs.