This is a happy and beautiful story and yet it still breaks my heart to this day.  Let me start by saying I might be a little passionate/little obsessed with orca - I know this might come as a shock to some of you.  Once you spend hours upon hours with certain families and individual whales then something happens to you.  It feels as if build a bond with them.  You have your favourites.  Once you have had a close, personal encounter with a certain orca then you feel a bond.  I do in fact have mine.  They are known as the T10's, a family of Bigg's orca.  

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<center>![IMG_3661.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTfDYLwPRAoLmGA8sBaNe2R6N4bKJK4yKNxuZW8GoECD1/IMG_3661.jpg)
*Who wants a whale hug????*</center>
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The pod/family consists of 3 orca - Mum and her two sons.  Respectively, ID'd as T10, T10b & T10c.  I am lucky enough to encounter them frequently on the Pacific North West and every time I do my heart soul sings with joy - there is a huge stupid grin on my face for the rest of the day.  The reason for this feeling are from numerous experiences with this pod. 

One time I was in 5-7m swell cruising beside them as they surfed and jumped out of the water playing - zig zagging under the vessel for about 30 mins.  *MIND BLOWN*. Another time, I watched as the two brothers decided it would be fun to grab numerous harbour seal pups and swim over to the vessel with it still alive its mouth and then show myself and my guests the animal briefly whilst they chomped down demonstrating how to effectively eat your food without closing your mouth. Personally, I absolutely loved it!
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<center>![IMG_3739.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbnmb9tYQ71Cy3vbHaqwr2cphSAqGiTb969sPrppoFD91/IMG_3739.jpg)
*The two brothers - T10b (in the background) & T10c.*</center>
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The last time I got to encounter this family was on my birthday - December 29. They were on the hunt in the area and I got to spend a good chunk of time with them just before they went on the hunt.  Then the biggest guy (T10b - my man!) spy-hopped near us.  **Best birthday present ever!!!!**  T10b is by far my favourite orca in the world - not only due to these amazing encounters I have previously mentioned but ALSO he was born in 1983 - same as me!

Now the heartbreak.. The sad thing is that in the last 6 months T10b has not been seen with his mum and little brother.  This is bad - it highly suggests that he has died.  Simply due to the fact he will never leave his family, as they are more attached to one another than us humans are. 
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<center>*Orca are the **MOST** social connected species on the planet.*</center>
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My heart broke and is still broken.  I, however, was lucky enough to see his mum and younger brother cruising past the coastline near my house a few weeks ago.  It made me smile and the sight also made me cry.

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These are some of my previous adventure posts:
*Animal Encounter #3 ~ A mother orca teaching her young to hunt Aug 18, 2016:* https://steemit.com/nature/@thomasjmitchell/animal-encounter-3-a-mother-orca-teaching-her-young-to-hunt-aug-18-2016
*Animal Encounter #2 ~ Chin slapping Humpback July 22nd 2017:* https://steemit.com/nature/@thomasjmitchell/animal-encounter-2-chin-slapping-humpback-july-22nd-2017
*Finding whales in the ocean - easy, right...?!?!:* https://steemit.com/adventure/@thomasjmitchell/finding-whales-in-the-ocean-easy-right
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Thanks for reading and all the support, Steemit!!

All stories & photographs are of my own work unless noted under the picture in question.

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