Those who know me know that I have fostered a growing fascination with cephalopods since I took Marine Biology at COA. My final project for the class was a research compendium on Giant Squids (which do exist and are not in fact the largest squids discovered).
But I have a particular love of the octopus. I have painted octopi on canvas, carved them into pumpkins, and made them out of cookie dough.
In reality, they scare me. Creatures of the deep have frightened me as long as I can remember and the octopus is a formidable one to say the least. They are often considered the smartest of the invertebrates, have more arms than you can shake a stick at, and apparently hold grudges. I came across an article about a research octopus who hated the chief researcher in the lab: "It wasn’t that it refused to participate in the experiments. It was that it refused to participate in experiments when that particular person was present. Anytime he was in the room, the octopus sat in the corner of its tank and glared stubbornly." (http://www.mentalwanderings.com/gulch/2007/05/do_cephalopods_.html)
I'm hard-pressed to think of anything more terrifying than an angry octopus.
My fearful awe may also be traced to Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid. She is sultry and evil, part-witch, part-octopus. I disagree with her actions but can never resist the urge to shake my bosom along with "Poor Unfortunate Souls". At the end of the movie she grows to humongous proportions and tries to come between the two young lovers before she is killed, because (obviously) true love conquers all.
You can imagine, then, how I felt when I received my Grow-Your-Own-Octopus. Here was my chance to overcome my fear from the comfort of my own home. I placed my octofriend in a bowl of water earlier this week and have let him do his thing. It has been only a few days and he is already well on his way to Krakken status. Hopefully once he becomes a giant monster I can use him for good and not evil.
