Friday, January 20, 2006
Squealer, The whale that came to London Town
Me, mum, dad, my brothers and my sister used to live by the sea in Australia on the Golden Coast. We had a small clinker boat called Summer Wine, moored on our pier and on sunny days would paddle about. One day we found an orphan bottlenose dolphin or whale nuzzling up against her. She must have lost her mother and found a substitute. Well you can imagine, we did our best to feed her with buckets of milk and fresh fish when she was older. She soon became a member of the family and we called her Squealer.
Some years later we moved to London and amazingly one winter Squealer turned up on the Thames river. There were four helicopters, six or seven boats, hundreds of photographers with gynormous lenses the size of dinner plates. She was even on T.V. there were half a dozen vans with satellite dishes on them transmitting the live coverage.
The next morning the helicopters were flying overhead at 5:30 in the morning, long before the dawn. Mum called me down and asked me to see if I could help, as Squealer seemed a little scared by all the attention.
Some years later we moved to London and amazingly one winter Squealer turned up on the Thames river. There were four helicopters, six or seven boats, hundreds of photographers with gynormous lenses the size of dinner plates. She was even on T.V. there were half a dozen vans with satellite dishes on them transmitting the live coverage.
The next morning the helicopters were flying overhead at 5:30 in the morning, long before the dawn. Mum called me down and asked me to see if I could help, as Squealer seemed a little scared by all the attention.
