Magnus is very happy to be back in his corner and has now lost all interest with the girls. He is also eating well.

Lizzie, Fatima and Anneka have been keeping themselves to themselves this week.

Sheba has now totally forgotten about Ray and is pursuing Magnus at full throttle, and of course getting no response.

Snoopy is still being grumpy, but is at least she is going into the pool to catch her fish at feeding time.

Atlanta is looking lovely in her new coat, and is now very hungry, so she is joining in with the pups during feeding time.

Ray and Marlin are still in the nursery pool, and their wounds are being cleaned daily. Marlin has had a change of antibiotics and has now perked up a lot more. Both are still being hand fed.

Flotsam, Jetsam and Little Ed are all still looking very round plus all are still hungry (not sure where they are putting it!). This week the commons have been fed by our volunteers. So now Flot, Jet and Ed think that they get fed by people wearing green plus any other colour, and have been slightly confused, when our visitors walk by their enclosure and don’t feed them.

Both Flipper and Yulelog are best friends again and there have been no more fights. Flipper can be found watching the 11am feed at the convalescence pool, as he knows that when the Animal Care Team (ACT) are done, it is his time for food.

Pepper has been spending lots of time in her cave this week, and the cold weather has taken a toll on her arthritis, she is spending her time resting on her mats, and the ACT are still cutting her fish in half for feed time.

Carus was a little offended this week, when one of our visitors commented that he was ugly, Carus looked and turned his nose up at the visitor (we think he was saying pot-kettle-black!)

Mika and Chaff are hungry at the moment, and as the ACT were cleaning their pool, they had to feed them from inside the enclosure, much to the joy of these two.

This week the ACT decided to do some target training with Thai and Bamboo, as both had not done this in a while. Thai and Bamboo were fantastic and let the ACT do all the checks on their paws, tummy and back, and they even went into the crush cage. As a reward, they were treated to some conifer branches and new sand.

Our Goats - Elvis is still not back to his usual self, but is slowly improving. All the goats are trying to keep out the cold, but are looking forward to next week as the ACT are having their Christmas dinner, the goats will get extra scrapes.

All the ponies are hungry, Tuppance has to be put into the pony shed during dinner time, to stop him nicking the other ponies food, he has calmed down a lot and dinnertime is now a more pleasant affair.

Our cat Reef’s ear is healing well, and he seems to have eaten something big this week, as he has a big fat tummy on him. Reef has also been out hunting a lot as he has been seen rarely this week.

Convalescence Pool
All the pups are continuing to do well, apart from Koko, Mutley and Simba, the reason for this is the ACT released them back into the wild on Friday 22nd of December 2006. It was an early start on Friday morning as the ACT were all in between 6.00 and 6.30am to weigh and put them in the trailer. This took a bit of time as they had to try and find these three in the morning light. Finally at about 7.20am the seals were all in the trailer and everyone headed off to Church Cove. All three came out together with Simba just a little bit ahead of the other two. As soon as their flippers touched the water they headed straight back up the beach (maybe the water was too cold!), but with a little encouragement from the ACT, they headed out in to the big ocean, and as everyone left they were all having great fun exploring.

Nursery Pool
Pugwash, Eve, Mowgli, Boss, Stitch and Pudey are doing well, but eating very slowly apart for Eve who is still not interested in fish, hopefully they will all take an interest over the next few weeks.

Hospital
Baloo is still in hospital 4 and is self feeding, all wounds are healing slowly. The ACT have taken second bloods from Lilo, who still has a little bit of an infection, so she will be on antibiotics for another week. Nemo is doing well and all the wounds have healed, he is self feeding, but it is a very messy time. Taz is obsessed with fish and thinks everything is fish – including people’s legs. Belle has some nasty wounds to her body which are being cleaned and treated, she now weighs 13 kilos, and has a cough which the ACT have wormed her for, and also she has a bit of a chest infection, so the ACT have changed her antibiotics and it seems to be improving.

Isolation
Chip’s x-ray has come back and the ACT have confirmed a broken jaw. Chip had to have two teeth removed and a piece of the jaw bone and the jaw is now secured in its place with some wire. The wire will be in place for around 4-6 weeks to stop any movement. She is doing very well and is now self feeding. All of Woody’s wounds are being cleaned and treated and healing well. He has been wormed and is now not coughing. Woody has also put on weight and is now 19 kilos. Yogi is still a little poorly, and has a chest infection, which with a change of antibiotics has seen an improvement in his health. Due to the very cold weather all the pups have a heat lamp to keep them warm.

The National Seal Sanctuary staff and residents would like to thank everybody, who has visited the web site and Seal Sanctuary this year for their support and hope you will continue to do so in 2007.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.