Yesterday afternoon a baby dolphin (it could have been a porpoise) appeared completely disorientated on Playa de Poniente in Motril.

The Guardia Civil were alerted and once a patrol arrived in one of their launches, they attempted to get the stranded baby creature back into the water. They did manage it but some hours later it appeared back in the surf. This time a group of youngsters managed to get the creature away from the beach.

But that wasn’t the end of it because the Guardia Civil say that they later heard that the dolphin/porpoise appeared close to the shoreline in Cotobro, Almuñécar.

The Guardia Civil decided to alert the Centro de Recuperación de Especies Marinas Amenazadas (Crema), which runs the Aula del Mar in Málaga to track down and help it.

Yet not every creature that turns up on the beach is something that you want to handle because on the 15th a large, unidentifiable, rotting carcass was washed up, owing to the strong surf, onto Playa El Cable, which is the one used for dogs and their owners.

Well, the dogs must have thought that it was Christmas because what humans consider revolting, dogs fall in love with and want to devour. Cans of dog food bear photos of tasty chunks of meat in gravy, designed to appeal to the person who is going to put in the trolley and pay for it; if it was to appeal to the dog that is going to eat it, a photo of ripe road kill would do the job.

Anyway, A front loader was used to remove it from the beach and dispose of it, much to the disappointment of any dogs on their beach at the time.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)