A sea lion was found sleeping in a women's garden in Southern California.
And, she's not the first pup to take refuge in someone's backyard near San Diego.
"He doesn't look very fat. I think he's a little skinny so he's probably left the nest too soon. "
Barbara Mullen has seen sea lions on the beach in front of her Carlsbad home before, but never this far up into her yard.
The pup looked around and snoozes off-and-on all morning.
A little out of place in the garden next to her patio.
It was the Mullens' standard poodle who first spotted the sea lion.
"And my dog started barking and she was going really bananas."
Mullen kept the dog away, and called SeaWorld.
"Oh, he's in the garden, huh?"
This was just one of four rescues of sea lions and it got noisy.
Nearly 250 young sea lions have been rescued so far this year along the San Diego County shoreline.
That's three to four times more than usual, and the weaning season is only just beginning.
"Unfortunately, we can't tell you what's going on right now, National Marine Fisheries is just kind of trying to determine that right now."
We called the National Marine Fisheries and learned marine biologists are stumped, but they're looking into what's causing what they call an "unusual mortality event".
An event that may be caused by a lack of food like squid and sardines.
It's something one sea lion expert says, is causing "great concern."
According to the CBS affiliate in San Diego, SeaWorld rescued eight other sea lions on the San Diego coast over Easter weekend.
And last week, a sea lion pup was found on a five-star hotel's patio about a half an hour south of this pup.
