FORT BRAGG, Calif. (AP) – A healthy sea lion pup that was returned to the sea by deputies after waddling a quarter-mile onshore seemed to be staying in the waves on Wednesday – at least for now, officers said.
“There’s no reports of him running down the street or anything,” Mendocino County sheriff’s Capt. Greg Van Patten said.
Deputies patrolling Highway 1, just south of Fort Bragg, spotted an animal moving slowly in dark, dense fog on Sunday. They discovered it was a sea lion pup, measuring 2 1/2 feet long and weighing about 20 pounds with a tag attached to its front flipper.
The animal – believed to have met humans previously through a stay in a marine-animal rehabilitation project – seemed happy to have come across the deputies.
“He kept coming up to them,” like a pet dog, “rubbing against their legs,” Van Patten said.