He was twenty miles from shore, fighting the cold and checking his traps, when a thin cry cut through the wind. It didn’t sound like anything that belonged in the open ocean.
Alistair, a hardened crab fisherman who’d spent half his life riding out storms, froze at the winch. He signaled Finn to kill the engine. The silence that followed felt heavier than the gray sky above them. Then the sound came again, softer this time.
Through his binoculars he spotted a tiny dark shape drifting alone. A baby sea otter. Cold. Weak. Minutes from slipping under. Every rule said he should leave it, yet every instinct told him he couldn’t.
He guided the boat closer, scooped the trembling pup from the freezing water, and wrapped it tight in a towel. He dug out an old baby bottle he kept for stray dock cats, warmed some milk, and held the little creature like it was his own. Finn watched in quiet awe as the pup finally drank and Alistair whispered, “You’re safe now.”
He ended the trip early and gave up a full day’s income to get the tiny survivor to the rescue team waiting at the dock.
What happened next and how the rescue staff reacted when they saw who the pup clung to — is the part that made this story explode online.