This day was one of the most joyful and absolutely right days of my life. It was today that I made the decision to release Cass the juvenile Herring Gull that I had been looking after for 54 days. I first met Cass after being alerted to him by a friend who saw him hopping in the bus station on one leg. I was advised by a rehabber to get him to a vet, so I went and fetched my trusty cat basket. He was given antibiotics and pain relief for an infected leg.

I then took him to an avian vet to get an xray which was kindly paid for by someone who loves and rescues gulls. He was diagnosed with osteomyelitis – a bone infection. He was put on to stronger antibiotics and pain relief. I was lucky to have the use of an aviary to put him in and a lovely lady who used to rescue birds but now was unable to due to health problems. She did give him his meds though. I came up every day to change the water containers and clean and scrub the aviary. We often worried that he wasn’t making too good a recovery, but his leg at times seemed better and he was able to put his foot down and bear weight on it.This wasn’t too often. I made many enquiries to research other ways of healing the bone and spoke to different vets. I even asked the Supervet practice, Noel Fitzpatrick but they weren’t able to help. During this time, the lady whose aviary I was using had to be rushed into hospital and is still there now and getting slowly better. So, I took over administering the meds and visited Cass 3 times a day.

However, I was getting more worried about his recovery and decided to ask a lovely lady who loves animals and is a homeopath. She came up with a double remedy that was taken over four days. He became agitated at times following the remedy – trying to fly up against the aviary mesh desperate to get out. He also lost his appetite and was hardly eating, only an apple that he liked to peck and a few grapes and cheese over the period of 5/6 days. He didnt touched his fish or dog food. Apparently, this was a good response to the remedy and showed it was working. I’d panicked though and made an appointment for the vet to xray him today to see what was going on. Then, after meditating and talking to the homeopath I decided to trust the process of the remedy and believe that all would be well and that he was healing at a deep level. I considered that even if all went wrong it wasn’t fair to keep him in captivity any longer and that he would be better to have his freedom in nature. So, as I left the aviary this morning after going to feed him I saw him standing by the aviary door. I knew that I would be coming back and collecting him to set him free. I phoned the vet and cancelled the appointment. I called a friend and we made our way down to the Topsham estuary and I opened the carrier and he walked on both feet on wet sand into the water to freedom. Shortly after he flew up or the first time and then circled around flying low to the water and landed on the still estuary water. There were no other herring gulls in sight. But, as if out of nowhere 3 other Herring gulls joined him! A juvenile, a young adult and a mature adult. It was the most beautiful and natural scene and I wept tears of joy. The best decision ever to release him here! Soon, he was joined by a handful of juveniles and they flew off towards Powderham. He had taken his rightful place at last as bird of the sea. Thank you to everyone who helped this beautiful creature who is home at last!