Manatee rescued in Dennis

By David Abel, Globe Staff

DENNIS -- The large, blubbery mammal was crafty. Every time his rescue party approached, he slipped away, beneath the docks, under boats, and nearly out of the marina.

Rescuers, including federal, state, local and nonprofit officials, finally cornered him, spread a net around him and pulled in the 800-pound manatee they dubbed "Dennis."

Within an hour, using a mooring barge and a forklift, they hauled the torpid animal -- whose temperature had fallen 20 degrees below normal -- into a waiting Penske moving truck, where they readied him for a long drive to Sea World in Orlando, Fla. where he was to be rehabilitated.

The manatee, who had become a celebrity in recent days on Cape Cod, was the first ever to make it this far north, straying far from its usual habitat off of Florida and the southeastern United States.

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