Octopi at it again!

The octopus has eclipsed the elephant as my favorite wild animal and I have made it official by becoming the first follower of the blog Everything Octopus! Since my last post about these rascally cephalopods, two more have made headlines - one on each coast:

At the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California, a two-spotted octopus some are now calling "Flo" disassembled the recycling system's valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater. The Los Angeles Times reports, "The tiny octopus, which is about the size of a human forearm when its appendages are extended, floated lazily in the water that remained in its tank. It watched intently through glass walls and portholes as workers struggled to dry the place out in time for the day's first busload of schoolchildren to arrive on a 9:30 a.m. field trip." In 1994, a previous resident named Octavia dislodged a plastic pipe, but caused her own death when all of the water in her tank drained out.
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At the New England Aquarium in Boston, 7' long Truman showed off his contortionist skills. As an "enrichment activity," his lunch of crabs was locked in a smaller box inside a 14" square acrylic box. Instead of tackling the puzzle, the impatient Truman bypassed the locks and squeezed through a 2" hole in the exterior box. He spent about 30 minutes inside, to the delight of staff and visitors, but never did get the smaller box open.

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My sister, niece Miranda, and nephew Ross are on the hunt for the most realistic toy octopus they can find at the science museum to be my new mascot!