A 9-year-old boy's dream of a pet octopus is a sensation as thousands follow Terrance's story online
CTV
The one thing 9-year-old Cal Clifford wanted more than anything since he was a toddler was a pet octopus.
The one thing 9-year-old Cal Clifford wanted more than anything since he was a toddler was a pet octopus.
The boy's family in rural Edmond, Okla., humoured him with toy versions of an eight-legged mollusk, but as Cal got older it became clear that only the real thing would do.
The child's father, 36-year-old dentist Cameron Clifford, researched the possibility with a local aquarium store and before long Terrance the California two-spot octopus, also known as a bimac, was living in a watery enclosure at the family home southwest of Oklahoma City.
“We really like to encourage our children's interests,” said the older Clifford. “It's magical to see a kid embrace their dreams and bring them to fruition. Cal has been infatuated with the natural world and with marine biology since he was very little."
A popular TikTok saga was launched with the father narrating the tale of Terrance the cephalopod, using a faux British accent generated by the social media app. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of people were following.
Within weeks, the tale took a surprise twist when it was learned Terrance was actually a female as it laid some 50 eggs that the family initially assumed were unfertilized. Several weeks after that, teeny near-transparent octopus babies began hatching and were given names like Rocket Larry, Squid Cudi, Swim Shady, Jay-Sea and Sea-Yoncé.
Cal had burst into tears at the family dinner table when his father first announced that the local aquarium store had told him adopting an octopus would be possible.
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