Allan Appel Photo
Neighbors along the Quinnipiac River awoke to a strange sight Monday morning: An unusual creature in the water along the residential finger piers just north of the Grand Avenue Bridge on the western shore.
It was about the size of a goat with a humorous flat nose. The most bizarre feature was that the animal had at least two humps visible above the water line. And it was swimming.
Or floating.
A two-humped miniature aquatic dromedary perhaps?
The body was grey but not bloated. Its eyes seemed oddly positioned and staring. A manatee this far north? At this time of year? Yet another bizarre consequence of global warming?
Mmmm.
On closer examination, the animal turned out to be, well, a toy, a stuffed and sculpted object that had somehow gotten away from its owner and became lost and bobbing mysteriously between the finger piers at the Oyster Cove Condominiums.
While bags of garbage, long pieces of wood, and other detritus, often with animal or even human shapes, are not an infrequent appearance floating down the Q, the swimming double-humped dromedary was definitely a first.
Looking over the find from his porch, an irritated and skeptical neighbor added: “Go find Jesus, Mary,and Joseph! I’m sure they’re nearby.”