{"id":361346,"date":"2026-04-03T04:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361346\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T04:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:03:20","slug":"adorable-dachshund-named-stanley-made-fast-friends-with-aayla-a-rescued-seal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361346\/","title":{"rendered":"Adorable Dachshund Named Stanley Made Fast Friends With Aayla, a Rescued Seal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813311\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-3.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the dog and Aayla the seal\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Stanley the dachshund knows how to get attention. Take a quick scroll through his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stanley_george_daxieduo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, and it\u2019s clear he has the love and adoration of his human, Melanie Talbot. But when Stanley met Aayla, a rescued seal at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sealsanctuary.sealifetrust.org\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sea Life Trust Cornish Sanctuary<\/a> in Cornwall, England, the two also had an instant connection. Talbot snapped photos of the encounter, in which the two noticed each other on either side of the glass and became curious. They rubbed noses on the partition before posing for photos together.<\/p>\n<p>The entire encounter between Stanley and Aayla lasted about 20 minutes, but the warm memories have endured since their meeting at the beginning of 2020.\u00a0At the time, Talbot theorized that Aayla swam to her pup because of his ensemble. It had been cold that day, and a knitted snood covered his ears. To Aayla, maybe Stanley looked more like an earless seal. \u201cI couldn&#8217;t believe it when they posed up,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/lifestyle\/dachshund-makes-friends-rescue-seal-225054461.html?guccounter=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">she said at the time<\/a>, \u201cI&#8217;ve never seen anything like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A lot has happened to Stanley since meeting Aayla. He was diagnosed with IVDD, a spinal condition that\u2019s unfortunately common in dachshunds. The brave boy has undergone spinal surgery, and while recovery can be a bumpy road at times, he is undergoing laser and hydrotherapy treatments. Talbot is raising money for his aftercare on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/help-for-stanleys-surgery-aftercare?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>See what the adorable pooch is up to now\u2014and follow his health journey\u2014by following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stanley_george_daxieduo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stanley on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Stanley the dachshund met Aayla, a rescued seal, and it was friendship at first sight.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813307\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the dog and Aayla the seal\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Aayla swam up to Stanley, and the two posed together.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813314\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-4.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the dog and Aayla the seal\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Melanie Talbot, Stanley\u2019s human, was amazed, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813317\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-5.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the dog and Aayla the seal\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The encounter was in 2020, and a lot has happened to Stanley since then.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-9.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the Dachshund\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>He was diagnosed with IVDD, a spinal condition that\u2019s unfortunately common in dachshunds.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-8.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the Dachshund\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The brave boy has undergone spinal surgery, and while recovery can be a bumpy road at times, he is undergoing laser and hydrotherapy treatments.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-813320\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stanley-aayla-6.jpeg\" alt=\"Stanley the Dachshund\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Stanley the Dachshund: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stanley_george_daxieduo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Melanie Talbot.\u00a0<br \/>\nRelated Articles:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymodernmet.com\/cai-and-waylon-adoption-story\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heartwarming Story of a Dog Who Spent 95 Day in a Shelter and the Boy Who Rescued Him<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymodernmet.com\/bradford-dog-piano\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adorable Dog Warms Hearts by Listening Attentively as His Human Plays the Piano<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymodernmet.com\/nala-dog-kiss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rescue Dog Has the Sweetest Reaction When Her Human Kisses Her<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stanley the dachshund knows how to get attention. Take a quick scroll through his Instagram, and it\u2019s clear&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[190282,65422,156,111,139,69,190283],"class_list":{"0":"post-361346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-aayla-seal","9":"tag-animal-friends","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-stanley-dog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}