Seal Portrait

After collecting him from school I persuaded him to come and see the seals at Dún Laoghaire's Coal Harbour Pier. He agreed half-heartedly, saying that he didn't like seals because they eat one of his favourite animals: penguins. I pointed out that many 'nice' animals eat other nice animals (foxes/rabbits, humans/just about anything, etc.) but he wasn't convinced.

The Ice House shop was open and the ladies in their white PVC aprons were very friendly, attempting to encourage him to eat the fish cakes (I decided not to bother buying them in case they went to waste) and they gave him two little tubs of fish-ends to throw to the seals.

And the seals were there alright, perhaps as much as four or five. The dog went batty when she saw them, barking as I'd once seen her bark at waves slapping the rocks in Greystones. We came to recognise a certain pair of the more persistent seals. One of these was aggressive, always catching the food even if it meant attacking the other more submissive one (pictured above), with paler, almost pleading-looking eyes. I'm guessing that they might be cow and bull. A mating pair? They had differently shaped heads/faces too, the pale-eyed one's sleeker and narrower, though both are badged with scars.

So we played our part in this little comedy: Lola barked, he held out and threw the fish-ends, pinching them in his sleeve-cuffs so as not to touch their slimy tails.