Something’s weird about that dog

Mandy Wennekes, of Dunedin, received quite the fright when she discovered a huge sea lion in her backyard yesterday afternoon.

"It was like a big bear."

When her dogs started barking, her husband, Mike, went to see what the fuss was about and was bewildered to see a "giant beast" on their lawn, she said.

Despite their Ocean View home being on the beach, the sea lion would have had to venture up three paths, one that was up a steep hill, to arrive in their backyard.

The male sea lion stopped for a rest before trying to travel beyond their house.

"He probably would have made it to the road, except we had a makeshift fence up so the dogs couldn’t get through, so he stopped."

He hung around for about half an hour before heading back home to the beach, she said.