'Like an underwater puppy': B.C. woman forms lasting friendship with octopus
When Catherine Dobrowolski began doing daily walks by the water, she never expected to make an eight-legged friend.
“I just wanted to get some exercise,” Catherine says, “And enjoy the fresh air.”
But Catherine soon realized she wasn’t alone in being active by the ocean.
“Every day there was something new here,” she smiles, before pulling out her phone to show the photos of all the marine animals she took videos of. “It just became addictive.”
While the creatures that Catherine encountered were countless – from seals to orcas to crabs – there was one that really captured her imagination, a baby octopus.
“It was fascinating just watching it camouflage and the way it moved,” Catherine says. Her videos show the red octopus slithering around the rocks before fanning its body out and instantly changing to the same grey colour as its surroundings. “I was hooked!”
For the next couple years, Catherine kept her eye out for other little octopi, seeing an increasingly larger one, until one day she noticed a very big blob.
When she ran to the shoreline to get a closer look, she was surprised to find the biggest octopus she’d ever seen rushing to get a closer look at her too.
“I’m scared,” Catherine says in a video that shows the octopus charging in the water towards her, before reaching its legs out of the water to engulf her boots and wrap around her legs.
“The grip was so tight it felt like I was getting my blood pressure taken in my legs,” Catherine recalls. “I was petrified.”
Catherine says she attempted to calm herself down by taking big breaths.
“When I let go of my fear, I just all of a sudden started to relax,” Catherine says. “And then he did.”
The octopus loosened its grip, left her legs, and transformed its body into what looked like multi-colour balloons being blown up. Catherine says it felt like the octopus was starting a wordless conversation.
“There was a connection,” Catherine says. “He felt me and I felt him.”
They spent the next hour together. On the video you can hear Catherine complimenting the creature, while the octopus remains close.
“It was the best day of my life,” Catherine smiles.
Catherine says their conversation has continued over the past few weeks.
The octopus, which Catherine now calls Baby, seems to recognize her, regularly swimming up to the shoreline to embrace her boots.
“Now we’re buds!” Catherine laughs.
Their friendship intensified recently after Catherine felt compelled to return Baby’s embrace by gently stroking its head.
“It wasn’t gooey or slimey or yucky,” Catherine smiles. “It felt like a dry Swiffer mop!”
Baby kept close during the caress. You can hear Catherine’s voice on a video saying how “soft” the octopus feels and how “beautiful” it looks.
Baby has continued to approach Catherine since then, swimming up to her to give a hug and receive an appreciative pat.
“He’s sort of like an underwater puppy dog now,” Catherine laughs.
Catherine has shared Baby’s videos on her Instagram page, which have earned more than 15 million collective views.
She calls their enduring friendship “powerful” and a “privilege.”
“As we’ve become acquainted, I’m giving him love,” Catherine smiles. “And he’s giving me love back.”
A love that Catherine hopes will inspire others to connect with the natural world — with curiosity, appreciation, and respect.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Latest updates on the major wildfires burning in Canada
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN sportscaster Darren Dutchyshen has died
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
Toronto man killed his mother and decapitated her — but it wasn't murder, lawyers argue
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during at his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
He had dreams of running for Canada in the Olympics, then he learned his family would be deported
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
Kidnapped by her father and kept in a crawl space: Court documents reveal Montreal horror story
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
Loblaw agrees to sign grocery code of conduct after months of negotiations
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said Thursday it's ready to sign on to the grocery code of conduct, paving the way for an agreement that's been years in the making.
Teen died from eating a spicy chip as part of social media challenge, autopsy report concludes
A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance 'with a high capsaicin concentration.'
Pierre Poilievre presses Justin Trudeau for summer pause on carbon and fuel taxes
To give Canadians a break on their summer road trips, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suspend all gas and diesel taxes from Victoria Day to Labour Day.
Canada sanctions four Israeli 'extremist settlers' accused of attacking Palestinians
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is imposing sanctions on Israelis she accuses of 'extremist settler violence' in the West Bank, three months after pledging to do so.