My muse

It took me less than 24 hours to be inspired. I recently took a course to volunteer at the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network. We learned how to rescue stranded dolphins from the beach, and how to rehabilitate them in the Sealab. When they are stranded, this usually means that they are sick. Alot of times, they are so exhausted and weak that they can't swim on their own, and we have to carry them around the pool 24 hours a day. As long as an animal is in rehab, there must be 24 hour supervision. Why did I not go into this detail before? There wasn't a need for it, but now there is. Sandy was stranded on a beach (where, I haven't figured out yet) at 12:30 Sunday afternoon. She is an female adult melonhead whale. She's about 8 feet long, and we haven't weighed her yet. When I got the email from our director, I went up there to see if they needed any volunteers. I got the night shift, 12AM to 4AM which is perfect for me because I can't ever go to bed before 4 anyway. Luckily she can swim on her own,but not very well yet. She gave me a couple scares last night when she went from slow swimming to crazy fast and rolling on her side. She can't seem to get her bouyancy right, and it's making it alot harder for her to swim. Every 30 minutes I had to take her respiratory rate, and every four hours we had to feed her. This was quite an ordeal because to get her electrolytes back, they have to tube feed her. 3 people got in the water and held her, and 1 person put the tube in, while the other poured pedialyte and water in the funnel up top. After that, she was given some herring and capelin. She will take them from your hand, but is still not strong enough to chase them. She's not as friendly as a bottlenose dolphin would be, but she is getting used to us. Last night (or this morning) she would swim right up to the observation deck where I was sitting and lift her head up and stare at me. I haven't gotten in the water with her yet, maybe when I observe them doing it a few more times. She was supposed to be taken to the galveston lab tuesday, but she stopped breathing for a couple minutes and they couldn't find her heart rate. She was under alot of stress so they decided to keep her here a few more days. I will probably to back Thursday night and I will take some pictures for an update. She is as cute as can be.