Animal people....SOOOOOO creepy.

I'm all for pets.  I love pets.  But they're pets!  They do not think like humans do.  You can't have conversations with them.  You can, but they don't really understand.  They understand treats and belly rubs.  They don't understand that you had a bad day because your boss made you work through your lunch and as a result you didn't get to watch Judge Judy today.  All that "Man's best friend" stuff is crap.  You put food in front of me that I don't have to work for, give me a warm, comfy place to sleep and play catch with me every day and I'll probably be your friend too. 

I used to think that this sort of behavior was limited to household animals.  My eyes have been opened now, and I see that this sort of behavior extends to all sorts of animals thanks to webcams.  We have a lady in our office who will not start working until she's watched video of a panda at some zoo.  There's a "Raptor Cam" that shows some eagle's nest that people go absolutely apeshit for.  And now there's OctoCam - a live streaming video of the octopus at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

Correction, there WAS OctoCam.

Apparently the octopus died a few months ago.  According to the website, he had thousands of internet followers across the world.  Thousands!  Thousands of people would get online to watch an octopus in a tank the size of a large hot tub float around and eat an occasional crab.  According to the website, that occasional crab is what did him in:

• It appears that Deriq succumbed to a massive coccidian ( a type of protozoan) infection that resulted in severe damage to his liver, intestines and heart. This particular parasite generally has a crustacean as an intermediate host. Consequently, Deriq probably became infected through his food source (crabs). This infection is common among many species of wild and cultured octopus.

Really?  His name was Deriq?  Was Derek not available? 

While reading about this, I discovered that Derek....I mean Deriq... has a facebook page.  Yes, an octopus has a page....with 321 people who "like" him.    I'm now fascinated with this page.  There's something funny about seeing "Deriq, the Internet Octopus commented on Stacey Johnson's photo."  Among the highlights from his facebook page:

• His interests include sleeping, changing colors, and swimming.  So basically "doing things essential to survival."  Again, animals are not people.  They don't have interests.  They like to survive.
• Sometimes Deriq likes to speak about himself in the third person, such as "Deriq is feeling frisky this morning!" other times he speaks in the first person.  No word yet on how this octopus accesses his laptop from the tank. 
• Some comments on his page include:

Sheila Hagar Deriq!!! So happy to hear from you. I am going to send you a picture of Gilligan, my desk beta fish...he is a huge fan of yours.

(She totally did send him a picture of her fish.  Deriq commented, saying he was *waving* at the fish.  My guess is he wanted to eat Gilligan, but whatever)

Alexa Joy I love it when he puts his suction cups on the camera! XD

 

Susan Steffen Lagerquist Deriq, we will miss you!! Thank you, Deriq for opening our world to your world. You were on my computer daily. Have fun chasing the heavenly crabs.

  Adriamarie Bruns- Arboleda I'm Heart broken, I actually watched him pass away. I knew something was wrong. I will miss him as I watched him everyday while drinking coffee. I am so sad now.

Dorothy Worlein I'm so sad to hear about Deriq. I loved watching him on the octocam every day from my place of work. I will miss him.

 

Nothing like publicly saying you're a slacker, and yes I see the irony in the fact that I'm writing this blog from my desk at work.  I guess I could issue the disclaimer that everyone I support is on the road right now, so there's not much work for me to do, but really if you're reading this it's because you're my friend and don't judge me like that, right?  Right?