Sealed & delivered, a covert operation

The covert raid of a US Navy SEAL team to capture or kill (it turned out to be the latter) Osama bin Laden inside a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011 was reportedly terrifying - for the al-Qaeda bossman and others inside. Earlier this week, there was a similar raid, not by a unit of any Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) force, but by a seal - the semi-aquatic but not aerial mammal, lesser known as a pinniped - in the home of a marine biologist and his family in Mount Maunganui in New Zealand. Not only did the seal, which spent a couple of hours inside the house after breaking in through the cat flap, not kill or injure any resident, but it actually didn't even upset the furniture or wake up the residing two kids who were asleep in the house. The non-burgling, non-violent seal did, however, harass the pet cat. It is yet to confirm whether the cat divulged any state or family secret to the seal on a mission.

The animal had waddled into the home of Phil Ross, some 150 m from the ocean shore, explored the hallway and corridor of the house and then reportedly settled in a couch in the spare room. Ironically, Phil the marine biologist - not to be confused with a US Marine - was not home. It was his missus who found the raider of the lost bark early in the morning. The seal was not charged before being returned to the sea.