A curious young seal broke into a New Zealand home, harassing the family's cat and hanging out in the hallway for a couple of hours.
The Ross family got an unexpected visitor on Wednesday morning. Phil Ross is a marine biologist working at the University of Waikato. He and his wife Jenn have two children, Noah and Ari, and live a little over 164 yards from the beach where they often see seals, especially this time of year.
The seal entered through one of the family's cat flaps either on the garage door or by the front door.
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"I haven't heard of seals going through cat flaps before, but I blame our cat, Coco. Coco is fairly territorial and tends to have a go at dogs. I imagine she took a swipe at the seal, which didn't back down, and then proceeded to chase her up the side of the house and through two cat flaps, into the garage then into the downstairs part of our house." Phil explained to FOX 9 in an email. "Coco hid at the neighbor's house and wouldn't come home until the seal was gone. Then for the next day, she wouldn't go downstairs where the seal was. We didn't see the seal/cat interaction, but it was clearly something that Coco didn't enjoy,"
The seal was captured by a ranger to be returned to the sea safely. (Jenn and Ari Ross)
"Jenn, my wife, is very cool-headed in these situations and handled the situation perfectly," he continued.
The seal was safely released back into a local estuary, Phil said.
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