A woman was left stunned when she opened her front door to discover a seal pup on her doorstep, just yards away from a busy road.
The lost pup lay innocently on its side by plants outside the woman’s home on Marine View in Seaton Sluice, Northumberland, on Tuesday morning, Northumbria Police said.
The woman promptly sought assistance from the police, who tried to return the young seal to safe waters.
Paul Moorhead, a community support officer with Northumbria Police, said: “When the sergeant asks you to go to a job like this you tend to think he’s pulling your leg.
“So when we turned up at the property it was a bit of a shock for us to find the seal pup lounging on some plant pots and having a bit of a sun bath.
“I’ll be honest, we didn’t really know what to do with it and I was half thinking of putting it in the back of my patrol car.”
Despite initially being baffled by the sight of the pup, Mr Moorhead and his colleague, Beverley Keenleyside, called out the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, who attended with the RSPCA.
Eventually the dehydrated seal was provided with fluids, before being moved closer to the sea, Northumbria Police said.
Mr Moorhead added: “It was a happy ending all round and the seal pup was able to return to the rest of his family who were swimming nearby.”
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