I finally touched a sea lion!!!!

As the title of this post implies, I touched a sea lion today!!! The rotation that I am currently assigned to is the research pier, so we have several dolphins and sea lions. I've had some hands on time with some of the dolphins already, but sea lions are a bit harder to manage, so we don't quite get as much hands on time with them. But today I got to help with a 2 person med check, which basically means that one person remains the focus point for the animal, while another person does a body check for anything that looks out of order. I got to be the body checker, so I got to ask for his flippers and rub him down! It was really exciting!!! :)


Also, I got to brush a dolphin's teeth today!!!!!! :)



(Fun fact: These pictures are actually from a LIFE article about U.S. Navy mine hunting dolphins, so this is in fact a navy dolphin, and this is pretty much exactly how I brushed their teeth today!)

Finally, I went to the pool after work today, and good news, I can do everything that is required for the navy swim test! Maybe I do have a shot afterall! The swim test consists of 10 mins treading water (easy), 75 feet underwater swim (not so easy, but I CAN do it, which is the important thing!), dive 12ft to pick up a weight (easy), and 400m in 20 mins (also way easier than I thought it would be- did it in 10 mins today)! It's a relief to know that I can pass this swim test, but I'm going to keep working out and improving my swimming skills since swim tests at other facilities are much harder.