If you’re ever wondering what to get a seal for its 31st birthday, might we recommend an ice fish cake?
Most seals live to be about 30 if they’re lucky, but one senior seal at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall, UK is still living large.
His name is Yulelogs.
The rescue
Yulelogs (we’re not sure why it’s plural) was rescued back in 1989 by a marine park in northern England when he was just a baby. But when the park closed, he was released back into the wild.
That’s usually a bad idea since animals in captivity from a young age have not learned to fend for themselves. And that’s what happened with Yulelogs. He had to be taken in once again 3 months later and was rescued by the RSPCA.
“…as he had spent such a long time in captivity, he had no idea how to feed himself and had become too used to humans.,” read an Instagram post about his big birthday bash.
Yulelogs was rescued after concerned citizens reported that he would come to the local beach and chase anyone carrying a bucket because he assumed they were full of fish for him.
Yes, seriously.
Life in the sanctuary
When he was rescued, he weighed only 1/4 of what he should, so the RSPCA contacted the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and asked if they could give him a permanent home.
Clearly, the arrangement has worked out well since he just turned 31.
And for at least the second year in a row (though it might be an annual tradition), he received a very special kind of ice cream cake. Fish-flavored!
And while that might not sound (or look) appealing to us, Yulelogs was in heaven.
Yulelogs now rests safe in the knowledge that all buckets he sees ARE indeed full of fish.
Thanks for all the fish
Photos of Yulelogs enjoying his ice fish cake are going viral in part because they’re so darn cute and funny.
He ate his cake with such glee!
And the adoring looks he gave to both the fish cake and the camera were enough to get a chuckle out of even the crankiest of readers.
Frankly, we’ve looked at cake pretty fondly before, but this is next level.
For a captive animal, Yulelogs has lived a pretty charmed life and is clearly surrounded by caretakers that love and value him very much.
He’s a guest favorite, with some people saying they’ve come to the sanctuary every year for a decade just to say hello to him.
The seals at Cornish Seal Sanctuary appear to get lots of enrichment time, learning to interact and solve problems as well as play with all sorts of toys.
Yulelogs is a big fan of the Hula-hoop!
It probably beats chasing children trying to build sandcastles on the beach – especially since these activities DO end in fish snacks.
More Yulelogs
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary has a full suite of social media accounts for you to keep up with Yulelogs and any other favorite seals you might have.
They even have a Flickr account full of photos of Yulelogs in case you’d like to see his weight transformation from a few years ago (afterr too many fishcakes, it seems).
There’s also Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for photos and news of the whole crew.
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