Dolphin Chronicles by Carol J. Howard
Author:Carol J. Howard [Howard, Carol J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-56942-4
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1995-09-15T07:00:00+00:00
7
Echolocation and Eyecups
The arrival of the Lags had set back both our general training and our echolocation research with Echo and Misha. By January of 1989, once all the Lags were in place and eating properly, life settled down enough that we could at least resume a regular training regimen with the Boys. The research itself, however, would require the large tank, to which the Lags had sole claim for the time being. Meanwhile, we started some preliminary training for the echolocation study, as well as continuing work on husbandry behaviors and “fun stuff.”
Ken somehow couldn’t bear to watch us train the dolphins while lying on our bellies, hanging over the edge of wooden platforms. That just looked too uncomfortable to him. He built us a contraption designed to be easier on his mind and our bodies. It consisted of a large blue plastic barrel, weighted with cement in the bottom to submerge it, attached to a framework of metal pipes that fit over the rim of the tank to hold the whole thing in place. The top of the barrel was at water level, so the barrel filled with water. That meant we had to wear hip-waders of the sort fishermen wear in order to stay dry. That way we could stand upright within the barrel, our arms at just the right level to work with the dolphins. It seemed like a good idea, but the thing never caught on. Not with us, not with the Boys. The cement made it incredibly heavy and nearly impossible to move; the pipes dug into and ate away at the concrete of the tank side. Holly said she felt as though she were in one of those wire hoops used to hold Easter eggs when you dip them into the dye, so we dubbed Ken’s creation the “trainer dipper.” Echo and Misha wouldn’t even come near it at first. They didn’t get much better with time. Whatever advantage we gained by being at their level was lost if they stayed at arm’s length. Maybe the Boys didn’t want us at their level. We retired the dipper after a two-month tryout in the thirty-foot pool.
That was just one of several constructions Ken devised for the dolphin project over the years, which met with varying degrees of success. He has a noted propensity for collecting scraps, odds and ends, and assorted gewgaws, from which he may someday build something. He built a wondrous, if perennially unfinished, tree house on his land, made in part from the hull of an old fishing dory he salvaged from somewhere.
Not long after the demise of the “trainer dipper,” Ken erected a small wooden shed on the deck next to the pool. He intended it as a sort of a researchers’ blind. The researchers (mostly that meant me) could sit inside, unseen by the dolphins. We could also keep the experimental equipment and papers in there, away from the elements. The shack reminded someone of the stall where Lucy sits as she counsels Charlie Brown in Peanuts cartoons.
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