ALL this little seal wants for Christmas - is to put on weight.

Common seal pup Mermaid was rescued way back in July by staff at Scarborough Sea Life Sanctuary from Fraisthorpe Beach and was so tiny and delicate staff had to nurse her round the clock to keep her alive.

As other pups have come and gone, Mermaid’s growth has been agonisingly slow.

She had numerous sores and abscesses around her mouth and the early prognosis was not optimistic.

Antibiotics eventually cleared her of any infections, however, and through sheer determination the animal care team have inched her steadily back to health.

“We generally expect a rescued pup to be fit and well enough to resume life in the wild in three months,” said displays supervisor Lyndsey Crawford.

“Mermaid has already been with us nearly twice that long. She was so weak at the outset that her recovery took much longer than usual, and was dogged with set backs.

“We all grew very attached to her of course, and refused to accept defeat, even though that meant one of us having to turn out in the middle of the night on many occasions, to administer another feed and check her condition.”

Finally, Lyndsey and her colleagues are happy that Mermaid is over the worst of her ordeal, but she still weighs only 20 kilos…10 kilos short of the necessary weight to give her a fighting chance of survival back in the open sea.

“All she needs now is to bulk up,” said Lyndsey, “so in Mermaid’s case we’ll be positively encouraging overindulgence this Christmas, and looking forward to her denting the scales in the New Year.”

The Scarborough team have target end of January, early February for Mermaid’s release, weather permitting.

“We have grown so fond of her that in one sense we’ll be sad to see her go, but the satisfaction of getting pups like Mermaid fit and well enough to resume life in the wild is what makes the job so rewarding…and the overwhelming emotion will be one of joy,” said Lyndsey.