On Saturday, I ran to the end of the 70th Street pier in Riverside Park. As I passed the kayak launch site, empty now, I wished that I could see that harbor seal again. The one with the one droopy whisker and the big black eyes.
About a year ago, Max, the doorman, told me a seal was hanging out at the boat basin. At dusk, I took the kids to see it. Our photo didn’t turn out, but there it was at the boat basin. The next week it was at the kayak launch site. It was yawning and stretching. Just lookin’ around.
We dialed 3-1-1. The animal rescue or marine biology people (or whomever 3-1-1 connected us to) said they would not come rescue it, because – from what we described, it was healthy.
After all, it was a harbor seal in a harbor. No matter that the harbor was the Hudson River.
On my weekend run this time, the only wildlife I saw were squirrels, ducks, and, I’m not sure they count – dogs. I didn’t even see one of the red-tailed hawks near the 80th street playground. They’re so vast you’d think they could swoop down and, with their talons, grab a toddler.
The best part of running in New York City is the wildlife. And when you run again, you remember.
WUK8XEF8JMDN
100 Days of Poems and Pics 
I live in Bakersfield, which is a far cry from New York City but there was a time that a Road Runner was hanging out in my neighborhood. He seemed confused yet content. I also have a personal practice of howling with coyotes at a dry riverbed right in the middle of Bakersfield. How I love that contrast! Some people say I am nutty… and I am, a little – but I rarely had that sort of deep, visceral connection as the coyote and I had a mutual “namaste” moment. 🙂
Somehow, I think you will get that.