Do you promise to love me, honor me and feed me herring?

A British woman "marries" the "love of her life" -- a dolphin.

Published January 3, 2006 9:19PM (EST)

Sharon Tendler, a 41-year-old rock promoter from London, and Cindy, a 35-year-old, male bottlenose dolphin, were married last week in a quiet ceremony at Dolphin Reef in Eilat, Israel. Tendler, who wore a white gown, a veil and flowers in her hair, got down on one knee and proposed to her slippery soul mate, then kissed him and gave him a piece of herring.

"It's not a perverted thing," Tendler told the Age. "I do love this dolphin. He's the love of my life."

Tendler and Cindy have had a long-distance love affair since first meeting 15 years ago. Whenever someone asked Tendler whether she had a boyfriend, she replied that she was saving herself for Cindy.

While the couple celebrated the first known human-dolphin nuptials, alas, their marriage cannot be officially sanctioned. Still, Tendler is sanguine and says that marrying Cindy was about love, not laws.

"It's just something that we did because I love him, but not in the way that you love a man. It's just a pure love that I have for this animal," she said.

Cindy was unavailable for comment.


By Lori Leibovich

Lori Leibovich is a contributing editor at Salon and the former editor of the Life section.

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