Shelby's Newborn Seal Pup Is Thriving

There was such huge interest in this newborn seal's first swim last week at the Aquarium of the Pacific - which Patch shared nationally Saturday - that we figured the world wanted to know how she's doing. Short answer: swell.

Six days old today, the pup spent the weekend nursing and bonding with her Mom, Shelby, a harbor seal who has been at the downtown Long Beach Aquarium since before it opened in June, 1998. The wrinkle in this story is that Shelby waited oh, 16 years, before giving birth for the first time.

Would she know how to nurse and nurture and parent her pup? A team of Aquarium experts assumed the best but monitored the mother-daughter pair closely over the weekend. And late Monday, said Aquarium spokeswoman Marilyn Padilla, the report was all positive.

Read a bit more here on the new seal, her , and her maiden voyage in the shade of a pool. Watch on the accompanying video of what the Aquarium calls 'Baby's Firsts,' the newborn's first dive - more like a push from Mom - just an hour after her birth Thursday. We dare you not to grin.