CULLMAN — Before the sun set over the horizon at Fort Morgan, Ala., a few days after Thanksgiving, a new chapter would be written in the life of Trey Partain and a dolphin named Chance.

Trey and his dad, David Partain, spent the morning fishing. The two had just come back to their condo to wash up. Trey was starting to clean their catch. His mom, Misty, came running to get him, saying that his dad wanted him to come back down to the marshy edge of the Gulf. There, in the shallow water, was a full-grown bottle-nosed dolphin, thrashing around and squealing in a high-pitched voice. “I knew right then that this was a once in a lifetime experience for Trey,” recalled David.

The two began the arduous task of dragging the beached dolphin back out in deeper water in an attempt to save his life. “We got him back out about  30 or 40 feet in the water, maybe six or seven times, but he would always turn around and beach himself again,” said David.

“There were a lot of mullet in the cove that morning, so my first inclination was to think that he had bumped into something and was addled,” said David. ”Later I noticed some mucus in his blowhole, and I wondered if he couldn't breath.”

“All dolphins have sad eyes, but he looked as if he knew that we were trying to help him. He was never aggressive, although he did thrash around some, and he made a lot of squealing and clicking noises,” David recalled.

After dragging the 250-pound mammal out to deeper water several times had failed, David decided to try something else. “I couldn't find a number for dolphin rescue in the phone book, but I did find a sea turtle hotline, so I called that,” he said.

While they waited for help, the Partains kept the dolphin wet.

At around one o'clock the turtle rangers pulled in on two wheels. “They were in direct contact with the dolphin rescue team who were enroute from Gulfport, Miss.,” said David. “Around four o'clock we all pitched in digging a trench so that we could remove him from the shallow water. Everyone there was starting to get very tired from all those hours in the water trying to keep him stable, and this was November, so the water wasn’t very warm.”

Misty made lots of coffee for the crew. She also kept the family dog at bay and made a video of the whole ordeal.

The rangers brought towels to help keep the stranded dolphin wet. They were excited. They told David that two dolphins had been discovered that day on nearby Dauphin Island, but those were fatalities. With this one alive, they would be able to take tissue samples and do tests to find out what it had been exposed to.

“According to the rangers, 220 dolphins had been found dead since the oil spill. This was the first live one, and just what they needed to find out the cause,” said David.

Now if he could just survive.

Trey was the one chosen to name the dolphin. He chose “Chance” because it was just by chance that they found him. Finally, around 6:30 that evening the dolphin rescue team arrived. “It was just about like the movie ‘Dolphin Tails’ for the first hour or so,” David explained.

 Now, after hours of struggling, a tired and weak Chance was put on a stretcher and taken to the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss.

“When last I heard of him, Chance had gained about seven pounds and was doing very well. They also determined that he was about two years old,” said David.

The rangers told David that there is usually an underlying cause when dolphins exhibit this behavior, such as an inability to breath.

“I had wondered if that was part of the problem, because when we were trying to get him to go back out he would roll over on his side and his blowhole would become submerged,” said David.

The story made local news channels along the Gulf, including WLOX which is an NBC affiliate. This was big news, meaning that there would be something to study in Chance’s tissue samples.

Up until this experience, Trey had wanted to visit the park where people can swim with dolphins.

“But this is a whole lot cooler than just swimming with dolphins,” said the 12-year-old West Elementary student. “I've always wanted to be a veterinarian. After this I think I might like to work with marine animals.”  

The Partains continue to follow Chance’s story online and hope to be invited when Chance is released back into the wild.