Sea lion Mika returned to give birth at the same St Kilda street last month as she did last season, not far from Kaitlin Beyer’s house.
Both times Mika gave birth, Kaitlin found herself guarding Mika from people trying to interfere with her.
She said it all started when she was woken up by Mika, who was making a "horrendous noise" squealing as she gave birth to a pup the first time.
When Kaitlin discovered Mika had given birth she immediately became fascinated by the sea lion and spent countless hours watching her.
A sea lion would normally spend about two weeks in the place where they gave birth, but Mika hung around for about six weeks.
Eventually, the Department of Conservation took Mika back to St Kilda Beach and Kaitlin followed.
She would go there and make sure no-one bothered Mika.
On one occasion, a woman was trying to touch Mika and Kaitlin had to intervene.
The police were eventually called because the woman became aggressive.
"I was just getting yelled at by this grumpy old lady," Kaitlin said.
On another occasion, Kaitlin and former Doc ranger Jim Fyfe stopped a group of boys who had jumped over a barrier to get to Mika and called the police.
Mr Fyfe and Kaitlin had become friends because he knew her grandfather.
Kaitlin was interviewed by children’s book author Rachel McCoubrey, who wrote St Clair Splash, a book about a sea lion gatecrashing the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool in 2015.
She said she was pretty excited about featuring in the book.
