A few days ago, TV and newspapers here in Finland were full of the story
of how a little baby seal was found on a beach in Helsinki, how the
people from the Helsinki City Zoo were called in to catch it and take it
to the zoo for TLC until it can be released back in the wild. It had
been separated from its mother somehow, and was in pretty bad shape.

Well, my sister is one of two carers at the zoo who are taking care of
this baby seal (and another baby seal that was found at the same time in
Porvoo/Borgå, a little town east of Helsinki). The first little seal has
been named Harald (the Finnish name of the cartoon character Hagar the
Horrible) because he was initially very aggressive. The carers were very
pleased that he was so aggressive, as that would mean he would not be
tamed and so could be returned to the wild and not run the risk of
getting too friendly with people who might not wish him well.
Unfortunately, he is gradually becoming less aggressive, and they are
worried about keeping him 'wild' enough.

The other seal is so small, he can't eat by himself yet, and has to be
force-fed. He is still very wild and my sis says force-feeding him is
always a huge struggle. Yesterday she told me she had started teaching
him to eat by himself by tossing herrings to him, but he had not eaten
them yet - he just played with them and pulled them to pieces.

While my sister is taking care of the baby seals, she has to stay at
work late every other day for their feedings, and I've taken on the duty
of feeding her cats on those days (see, this post did get back on
topic). Linus is his usual grumpy self and just glares at me when I come
in the door - 'what are *you* doing here and what have you done with my
hoomin?' - while Ronja is fairly friendly with me and always thoroughly
sniffs my hands. She's such a cute little girl. Well, Linus is quite
pleased to have his dinner on time, I'm sure.