I haven't seen it b/c we couldn't go last weekend. But I WILL. And I'm hoping I can encourage others to see it.
Some of you don't know me well enough to know -- I'm sort of semi-handicapped (meaning I'm in a wheelchair a good deal of the time, but not *all* the time thankfully).
I say that because late last Fall my wonderful husband gave me one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life. We live in Orlando and went over to the Clearwater Acquarium because I wanted to see "Winter" the dolphin who was the subject of "Dolphin's Tale" (true story -- as a young dolphin she got caught in fishing net and by the time she was beached the tail had become necrotic and had to be amputated. The movie was the story of how so many people all worked together to ultimately make a prosthetic tail for her that worked). As a result it has changed how human prosthetics for amputees are made.
We got there, and totally unbeknownst to me, David had arranged for me to be "Trainer for the Day". You don't get a ton of time with her, BUT it was amazing.
I was on my little 4-wheel scooter and when they let me into the special pool she was in, the wall around the pool is about 3 feet high. I was supposed to help them put her prosthetic tail on.
Winter, on the other .... flipper ... had her own ideas. She came up to the inside ledge and rolled over just a bit and swam s-l-o-w-l-y by us ... and the head trainer/vet looked at me and said "What the heck is SHE doing??" And ... Winter has made a big circle of the entire deep pool and comes back by me ... again VERY slowly and rotated almost on her side.
I wasn't supposed to but I had my hand in the water and the trainer/vet looked at me and said "I GET IT!!! See how she's rolled a bit on her side?? She's using her sonar to track YOU!! Because you are sitting on your scooter? I don't think Winter has ever 'seen' one of those before -- and she could tell as she pinged thru the wall that you were NOT in a typical wheelchair and she was checking *you* out!!"
This time Winter slides up on the inner shelf (like she was supposed to -- I'm thinking of the dog who stops to sniff on their way to do a command and who 'breaks' to satisfy curiosity??)
I handed the prosthetic (HEAVY danged thing - it weighed about 5 pounds) and Winter's nose is pointed at me. They gave me some little fish to give her. Because I'm seated on my scooter I couldn't quite get close enough so Winter totally obliged me by literally sticking her open gaping mouth right under my fingers so I could literally lay the fish in her mouth. (THAT is not protocol -- I'm supposed to drop them to her.)
She got it folks. She really did. She knows handicapped kids and adults come to her all the time, and she truly understood and was accommodating my disability. The vet/trainer allowed more contact there than she's supposed to (and I will forever be grateful)
I briefly met "Hope".
What these people do is amazing folks. This whole Aquarium is for permanent rescue & rehab. ALL the animals there long term can't be released back into the wild. But the "pet therapy" encouragement value is unbelievable/
The prosthetic has lengthened Winter's life. She couldn't have lived long at all without it -- their fin levers up and down. When a dolphin loses that flipper they will try to waggle side to side to locomote thru the water. That creates massive arthritis quickly and she wouldn't have lived long.
Even with the prosthesis her life won't likely be a normal 22-25 year span because they can't keep the tail on her all the time (the weight) and her body has begun to curl under despite therapy, exercise, etc. But she's healthy and happy. I actually also got to stand there while they took blood for bloodwork (yep -- not just dogs have to have bloodwork!)
Please support this movie if you can. If you know anyone just plain going thru a depressing time of their life -- take them. The encouragement value of this is immense. I was going thru a tough time then and I can't tell you how deeply this helped me. HOW can I complain after seeing her. I can still walk. I don't have a major portion of my body missing. And yet SHE was interested enough to check ME out and then accommodate ME.
DT2 is about the addition of Hope and how the two of them have bonded.
But stay and look at the credits if you can. Credits from the 1st movie was an amazing list containing a LOT of the vets at the University of Florida (some of them I have met!). I wasn't expecting that -- I didn't know UF did *any* marine biology and they do.
But those of us out there that do rescue -- we have come to KNOW how important that one more email may be in getting a dog a home, or in getting someone else (sometimes halfway across the country) interested who will forward it to someone else .... BUT in this case, the email chain got vets and doctors (and makers of prosthetic limbs) involved from far, far away. And our veterans coming home missing a limb are benefitting from the resulting research. and ... rescue. (You've seen the bumper sticker "Who Rescued Who?" .... it's kinda like that)
Ok -- thanks for reading I know they have to add in some dippy romance stuff, etc. but I just wanted to encourage folks to see it. I want to see that Aquarium raise the money they need to expand the facility. It's rescue of a different but important kind.