As an early Christmas present we are giving all our readers an exclusive sneak preview of our very own Adopt a Dolphin Administrator Kirsten Hintner’s brand new book, The Magic Dolphin, an exciting children’s novel with strong animal characters, fun, real behaviour based on accurate scientific information from the marine biologists who study them.
What makes the story even more enthralling is that the dolphins featured are actually real – alive, and swimming around wild and free in Cardigan Bay, West Wales!
Read on- but beware- you might just fall under the spell of the Magic Dolphin!
The Magic Dolphin
Mum taught me what some of her ‘clicks’ and ‘clacks’ meant so that I too could begin to communicate back to her. I also discovered I could whistle…yeah really whistle! Mum called it ‘my special whistle’ that was unique to me so that she always knew exactly where I was. She whistled and then I had to whistle in return. She said we must practise this a great deal. So for the first few weeks we were both whistling to each other every single minute of every day until in the end I knew exactly what hers sounded like and she, mine.
Those first few days were tricky I won’t deny it. Try as I might to steer successfully using my floppy fins, I ended up floundering and wavering about until sometimes I didn’t know if I was upside down, sideways on, or inside out. I found myself criss-crossing in wild frantic movements in front of and over Mum’s head in a desperate attempt to keep up. But Mum always came to my rescue, gently nudging me back in the right direction and keeping me on course by pressing her fin against my side.
“There, there, my little one” she whistled, as she patted me on my head with her fin. “You’ll tie yourself up in knots if you keep that up” she chirped and chuckled.
With all these new skills to learn, I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to investigate my local surroundings in greater detail. This watery world that we lived in was full of sights and hundreds and hundreds of sounds, many of which made me jump out of my skin. On closer inspection I found out that we shared the bay with lots of other creatures beside ourselves and those microscopic ones I had discovered in the sunlight.
Poking around in some rocks one day, minding my own business, I spotted something scuttle out and then stop dead in its tracks.
“Yeahhh?”, it snarled at me angrily whilst waving two nasty looking snappers in my face. “What are you staring at, eh?” SNAP SNAP, SNAP SNAP.
I couldn’t take my eyes off this strange looking creature and began to circle it so I could examine it from all angles. The more I looked, the angrier it became, and it started to shake itself frantically and wildly and snapped its claws faster and faster, and each time closer to my beak.
“How funny you are!” I couldn’t help but burst out, “You’re such a tiny little spiny thing. What are you?” I chuckled and clicked, “and why are you so angry?”
“Funny….FUNNY!” he furiously shrieked, red-faced, “I’ll give you funny.”
And before I could do anything, I felt a sharp pain and let out the most piercing “OOUUCHHHHIIEEE” as this strange little critter had attached itself to the end of my beak and was squeezing very hard indeed. Quickly, without thinking, I rammed my beak deep into the sandy bottom and began to try to violently shake it off.
“Let go, you spiteful snap-happy sneak!” I clacked loudly between shakes. “Get off, this minute”, but instead he gripped tighter, saying,
“There, that’ll teach you to laugh at me, that’ll teach you to call me FUNNY and to go poking that UGLY, long beak of yours into the business of others!” he squawked hysterically.
Although the grip that he had on me certainly hurt a great deal, it was also beginning to tickle because in his determination to stay attached, he shifted and fidgeted his pincers about. In fact it tickled so much that I began to laugh and laugh and laugh. I laughed so hard that I was blindly bumping into rocks and stones unable to see where I was going. This of course made the little creature more furious than ever, which made me laugh harder. My belly, my sides, and everything ached.
“Oh, please” I begged him, “you just HAVE to let go, you’re ti…, tick…., tickling me,” I tried to explain through fits of hiccups and giggles, “I can’t take it for another minute more!”
With all this going on, I had quite forgotten to surface for breath and was now gasping. Quickly deserting the ocean floor and making for the surface, still with this creature attached to my beak, I broke through for air.
“Ahhhhhhhh” I went as I sucked in a great belly full through my blow hole. I would NEVER forget to do that again!
“Oh no, Oh no, you fool!” screamed the critter in sheer terror quickly relaxing his grip and letting go of me. I followed him as he slowly floated back down towards the seabed.
“If they see me up there, they’ll make crab meat outta me!” he wailed, as he descended, all eight legs now floating above him as he gained speed, and dropped like a stone.
“Who’s they?” I snapped sharply, getting a little annoyed at being called ‘a fool’. Whoever was a fool, I was certain I was not one of them. “Don’t you know?” he stared at me in amazement once he’d arrived back on the ground more than a little shaken. “Crabs like me become sandwiches if we are caught up there!” he screeched, hopping from one claw to another.
And as quickly as he’d arrived, he scuttled back towards his rocks and disappeared, leaving a puff of fine white sand behind him. I looked upwards to where we had been. I wasn’t sure who ‘they’ were or what sandwiches were either but I was sure it wasn’t all as bad as the critter had made out.
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Story by Kirsten Hintner, photo by Pia Anderwald, crab illustration by Paul Daley and dolphin illustration by Alice Ormiston. With thanks to Dr Peter Evans for his input as main photographer and scientific adviser.
Intrigued? If you want to read more about this little dolphin’s adventure, you can order The Magic Dolphin book, via our Adopt a Dolphin Shop.
Order now and you can still treat your little ones to the magic of the Cardigan Bay dolphins for Christmas!
