My (Emotional) Good Deed for the Day

Yesterday we took advantage of a beautiful day and drove down to LaJolla Cove. It was gorgeous, the waves are beautiful, the cliffs are awesome, there's a grassy area to play, a walking path along the water, little trees to climb, a small beach to play on with a huge rock tunnel to walk through (the water eroded the rock away to create a tunnel), and an area out in the water where the sea lions have taken over and bask in the sun while the tourists stare at them. We joined this group, Will and me. As we were listening to their barking and I was holding Will up to see them, we were moving closer and closer as the crowd thinned. And pretty soon, we were right in front staring at the beautiful creatures, some dry and brown from the sun, some shiny and black from the water splashing. Then I noticed it. The gigantic slash across the neck of one, fresh wound, bleeding, open sore, the fishing wire still hanging from it's neck. I was HORRIFIED. I immediately jumped back, called Jeremy over and told him to go look at that poor sea lion. I told him we couldn't just leave him there, we HAD to call someone. Jeremy wasn't taking me very seriously...and all of sudden the tears started flowing. I became VERY upset. I was not mad, I was extremely sad. Jeremy started realizing how much this was affecting me and that I really had to do something. Then...I saw it move. The sea lion moved, it was still alive. I cried harder, asking Jeremy to please call someone, please please call 411 tell them city of LaJolla, Animal Rescue. Please please please. He asked why I couldn't call and I said, I can't talk, I'm totally crying!! I fell against Jeremy in a huge hug and said, we have to do something, we CAN NOT leave him there. We can't walk away and NOT DO SOMETHING. Then I realized I was sad for the sea lion but very upset because of the people!! All these people, staring at the sea lion, all the silly (insert-stupid) tourists, staring at those animals, what...haven't you seen a sea lion before?! And NONE of them were doing anything to help that guy...no one was on a phone. They were just standing there. Staring. I told Jeremy I KNEW there was a sea life rescue program b/c I remembered they came to the preschool I worked at in San Francisco. So he called 411 and they connected them to Sea World, who did have a Sea Life Rescue Program...and he left a message. A message!!? That wasn't good enough for me. So I got on my phone and started searching the internet, I found the same SeaWorld program with the same number, but also found a 1-800 number specifically for Sea Lions, so I called it and had to leave a message...I was starting to feel a little better, but I was not comfortable with this whole, leaving a message thing. I wasn't crying anymore, but I still couldn't get myself to leave...but I couldn't think of anything else we could do either. So I took Will's hand and we slowly walked away to find a place to eat. Then, there they were...3 lifeguard/fire rescue guys. I realized I was about to teach Will an important lesson. As I held his little hand, we walked down the stairs to the guys, and talked to them about the sea lion, and asked if they knew who to call and could they please help him. They said, they knew about him and were watching him very closely and SeaWorld knew about him too. They said b/c he was still relatively healthy, he would not allow them to capture him for treatment, so they had to sit and watch him until he "beached" himself...that was very sad to me, but I felt a million times better. I could walk away and find a nice place to eat lunch with my family knowing I did the right thing, I stuck to my guns and kept trying until I knew we had done everything we could to help that animal. And to boot...I taught my son how to stand up for your thoughts and how important it is to help animals who are in need.

Fantastic LaJolla Cove.

My punkin getting a better look.

Molly is totally fearless.

 This palm was planted at the entrance to the restaurant we ate at, and Will LOVED it, so we had to take a picture. Pretty good picture. :-)