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Kidogo, a Southern White Rhinoceros, keeps an eye on her one-week-old calf at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in Fla. The zoo has launched a naming contest on it's Facebook page. The contest ends Dec. 23 so the newborn will have a name for Christmas.
Chris O'Meara/AP
Seal hops into home, naps on couch
Updated December 14, 2011 13:11:42
Photo: The seal ignored Ms Swoffer's dog and cats. (NZ Department of Conservation)
A baby fur seal has made its way into a New Zealand home and taken a quick nap on the couch.
Annette Swoffer lives about 300 metres from the water at Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty on the North Island.
She was at home on Sunday night when she heard a racket and went to investigate.
She found the fur seal curled up on the couch having negotiated a busy road, a long driveway, a fence, cat door, two cats, a dog and a set of stairs.
Photo: The seal was on the couch for about 45 minutes. (NZ Department of Conservation)
The seal ignored Ms Swoffer's dog and cats and plonked itself on the couch for about 45 minutes.
"I was in my office and I heard an awful racket down below ... I thought the cats have brought a rabbit or something in so I went down and had a look - and there's a seal in my kitchen," Ms Swoffer told The Bay of Plenty Times.
"I thought 'I'm hallucinating, this is just wrong'."
Ms Swoffer called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who then called the Department of Conservation (DOC), which sent a ranger to pick the mammal up.
"They were giggling away and I'm saying 'I'm not drunk, I'm not lying, there's a seal in my house'," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.
The pup was returned to the sea by a wildlife officer, but not before the intrepid adventurer got from the back of the car into the front and turned on the radio.
It was believed the same seal had been collected from a garden earlier that day and seen at a roundabout the next.
"It's not that unusual to have a seal turn up in strange places, especially in coastal areas," DOC spokeswoman Katrina Knill told ABC News Online.
"They swim up rivers and streams and then sometimes they do venture on roads and land."
