Parents Get 9-Year-Old a Pet Octopus and Absolute Chaos Ensues
It's every parent's worst nightmare — you go the extra-mile and get your kid their dream pet and then things go absolutely haywire. That's what exactly what happened to one family in Edmond, Oklahoma, who gifted their son an octopus and now have a whole mess on their hands.
It all started with a birthday wish granted. Nine-year-old Cal Clifford had asked for a pet octopus for years and finally his parents made it come true.
According to the Associated Press, Cal's father, 36-year-old dentist Cameron Clifford, did a little research to see if it was even possible. It was, and the family brought home a California two-spot octopus that they named Terrance.
Related: Octopus 'Hugs and Kisses' Diver in Extremely Rare Footage
“We really like to encourage our children’s interests,” the dad told the news outlet. “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.”
Naturally, they documented their son's journey with his new pet on TikTok where they built a following. Imagine their surprise, however, when weeks after they brought Terrance home they realized he was a she — and she was pregnant.
Terrance laid a whopping 50 eggs that initially the Cliffords believed were unfertilized. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Weeks later the octopus babies were born — although not all 50 of them made it. Still, there's a difference between owning one octopus and owning a whole bunch of octopus babies — 23 to be exact, KING 5 Seattle reports.
According to one of the family's TikToks, the delivery of octopus eggs typically means the end of the female lifecycle. But thankfully Terrance lives on.
As the video explained, moms tend to starve to death after having their babies because they don't want to leave them alone and vulnerable. But this was obviously not a problem for Terrance. They could bring her all the food she could eat.
Now that Terrance had safely made it through birth, the Cliffords still had another problem — what in the world to do with all these babies? So far they've managed to care for the babies that have hatched (including paying for their pricey food) but eventually the hatchlings will be too big for the Cliffords to care for.
In another update on their page, they announced that they will not be giving the babies to private owners, "as to not irresponsibly perpetuate or romanticize their caretaking," they explained. And instead have been in touch with universities and other organizations that might be able to take the babies in.
The Cliffords of course realize that this call was a but "hypocritical" — after all, they'd romanticized having an octopus and sort of ended up in a mess. But it seems they've learned their lesson and are committed to doing right by their pets. Even though it has not been easy.
"I wish my son's favorite animal had been a hamster," the dad joked online.
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