Octopi? Octopuses? Octopodes? Whatever you call them (octopodes
is the least-used but most linguistically correct term), they
are among the strangest-looking and most eerily intelligent
animals on the planet — more intelligent in some ways than many
children. If treated well, they can be friendly, even playful.
You might imagine they would make interesting pets. In fact,
they do not, for reasons that may surprise you.  They appear
like something dreamed up by a hallucinatory science fiction
writer — eight snakes emerging from a floppy hat with eyes. When
you look at an octopus, it is likely to look, really look, back.
It is easy to get the rather disconcerting feeling when staring
deeply into its eyes that there is someone at home in there and
that someone is sizing you up.  Octopuses, to go with the more
traditional plural term, do seem to size people up. Some they
will give a multiarmed caress, others they will squirt with
seawater any chance they get. They may go months without seeing
someone, but still re