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Since Rimmy hadn't seen another dolphin in more than a year, the process wasn't \"as simple as putting her in a habitat\" with other animals, Nollens said. She was introduced to the other dolphins slowly. First, her handlers at Sea World allowed her to merely hear another dolphin nearby. Then, Rimmy was allowed to catch glimpses of other dolphins on the other side of a channel.

She then had a \"smooth\" meet-and-great with other dolphins, and she and her pool-mates have been getting along swimmingly ever since -- just a few weeks after the socialization process began, Nollens said.

Nollens said finding a way to perform a dolphin spinal tap was a creative solution for Rimmy's unique needs, and resulted from a collaboration between NOAA, the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, researchers at Texas A&M University and the Innovative Veterinary Medicine, which provided a ventilator designed specifically for dolphins to administer the anesthesia.

\"It's amazing what can happen when we all work together,\" he said. \"Big things can happen.\"

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