THE OCTOPUS

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I'd call me Us.

Ogden Nash



Why octopuses? They aren’t cute or furry, they aren't an animal I get to see very often and I live about as far from the sea as you can get in England. Not to mention the thought of scuba diving makes me hyperventilate. I wish it didn't because however you look at them, there is something magical about the octopus. It could be the eight legs, the talent for mimicry, their obvious intelligence or their insatiable curiosity.















Octopus investigates Diver

My interest in these creatures started when I caught a brief glimpse of David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ on television last year. The image of the giant Pacific octopus guarding her eggs stayed with me and I made an effort to find out more about these amazing beasts.
At the same time I saw the Bridge House call for submissions for their animal anthology, and decided to combine the two. The more I found out about octopuses the more charming I found them. They have the intelligence of a dog and the curiosity of a cat. They are prey to other sea dwellers, as well as being efficient predators themselves. They lead short and solitary lives and end their days giving birth to, and protecting the next generation. There are hundreds of different varieties of octopus, of all sizes and colours

Over the next few days I'll tell you a little more about octopuses, their life, their biology, their position in art and literature, and their relationship with humans.
Neiraketo, the heroine of my story, is a female Giant Pacific Octopus, and with more luck than judgement, she survived the many perils of marine life to reproduce herself. This is an amazing feat considering that for every 100,000 eggs laid, only one or two will survive to breed themselves.















Giant Pacific Octopus


I've always enjoyed animal stories and there are many amazing ones for children, but far fewer for adults. I have fond memories of 'Tarka the otter', 'The Story of a red deer', and others like them, so it's been fun to try and write one myself. I only started to write seriously a couple of years ago and most of my attempts have been in Scifi, and modern urban fiction, so I was thrilled when my story was accepted by Bridge House.

I'm a member of the local wildlife trust http://www.wildlifebcnp.org/and feel it's very important to preserve the environment that wild animals live in. The marine environment is especially fragile, the recent oil leakages off the southwest of the USA have brought that to the worlds attention recently, and I'll say a bit more about marine conservation later in the week.

I've always lived with animals and at the moment I share my house with a cat.

more tomorrow......