Resilient Rupert weathers another storm

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT HARBOR -- As Chloe the cat and Pobre Cito the Chihuahua

settled in for a Monday morning nap, a celebrity was probably the last

thing the two mascots at All Creatures Care Cottage in Costa Mesa

expected to see carried through the door.

But then, around 10 a.m., the arrival of Newport Harbor’s beloved

troublemaker caused some commotion in the otherwise sleepy animal

hospital.

Orange County Harbor Patrol officers had lifted Rupert, a black swan,

out of his stomping grounds after a fish hook got caught in his beak and

a string of fishing line had injured his throat.

“Rupert, you’re ready?” Mike Teague, a Newport Beach police animal

control officer, jokingly asked the bird as he lifted him out of his

truck.

Once inside, the center of attention himself didn’t seem too bothered

by the events and took care of a little preening as Joel Pasco, the

hospital’s veterinarian, cleaned the wound and gave Rupert a shot of

antibiotics as a precaution.

But Monday’s vet visit was peanuts compared with the swan’s near-death

experience last year when he swam through a diesel fuel spill. He’s also

had his fair share of fishing line encounters in the past. A pink scar on

his otherwise black, right leg serves as a reminder.

Rupert’s not the only bird with fishing equipment problems in the

harbor.

“It’s a pretty common occurrence where there is fishing,” said Teague,

adding that sea gulls and other birds also get tangled with hooks and

lines.

Rubert managed to survive his latest troublesome encounter with little

problem.

“He’s doing good,” Teague said Monday afternoon, adding that Rupert

jumped back into the water on his return to the harbor.

The swan’s adopted “mother” didn’t seem too pleased with Rupert’s

behavior.

“He just can’t keep that beak of his out of trouble,” said Balboa

activist Gay Wassall-Kelly, who’s chronicled Rupert’s adventures for the

past five or six years.

And right now is not the time for reckless stunts, she added. After

almost two years of boyish indifference to Pearl, a female black swan who

had been brought to the harbor as Rupert’s companion, love seems to have

finally struck Newport Beach’s favorite bird.

“Just on Saturday, the two of them got married,” Wassall-Kelly said,

adding that little Pearls and Ruperts could soon arrive as a result.

“If they stay out of trouble,” she said, laughing.