12:34pm Friday 26th October 2007
After weeks of nurturing at Milford Haven's seal hospital, Beauty, Pembrokeshire's famous black seal, is due to return to the wild tomorrow.
Beauty will return to the sea, somewhat fittingly, on Whitesands this Saturday afternoon.
She was she was found swimming off Ramsey Island without her mother last September. She was just a couple of days old and would not have survived alone. The skipper of a Voyages of Discovery boat managed to get alongside her and rescue her.
She was named beauty by the skipper's girlfriend, but it was only when she started moulting her baby fur at the seal hospital that she was discovered to be a real black beauty.
"I've only ever seen one black seal before," said Terry Leadbetter who founded the hospital, "usually they are male.
"We are really chuffed that we have got her. She's progressed so well she's been an absolute delight to deal with. She's piled on a colossal amount of weight. We'll be glad to see her go on Saturday.
"The good thing is, because she is so jet black we will be able to monitor her progress hopefully for years to come because she's going to stick out among the crowd."
Log on next week for a video of Beauty and see next week's Western Telegraph for pictures of her release.
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