Unconfirmed Reports

Today I communed with a seal. I was riding a bike along the edge of Loch Gilphead, when I noticed a seal sunning itself on a rock right next to the shore. I got off my bike, and started to walk slowly towards the shoreline, not wanting to disturb the seal. It stared at me intensely, a little worried, but perhaps also a little curious. I wanted to maintain the seal’s curiosity, so I started to wave at it, and make other friendly hand gestures. The seal continued to stare, apparently fascinated or bemused. I was listening to techno music in my headphones, so my waves and hand-gestures naturally began to conform to the beat of the music, and gradually I reached a rock right on the edge of the shoreline, now only about five metres from the seal. By now I was actually dancing, looking at the seal, and dancing to the techno music which I was thoroughly enjoying. The seal continued to stare at me fixedly, with its large brown eyes, its whiskered face quite like that of a domestic dog. It raised its nose in the air a couple of times in some sort of head gesture that I couldn’t decode. It also started to look away across the loch, considering whether it should leave this strange situation; but for another five minutes it didn’t leave, but instead kept watching me as I bopped and jived on the shoreline. Then the tune on my MP3 player ended, I stopped dancing, and seal rolled slowly off his rock, into the water.