Lucy loves to play fetch at the beach with her tennis ball. But she wasn’t expecting to have her fun cut short by an octopus!
That’s what happened when she was playing with the ball near the shoreline at the beach near her home in South Africa.
“Border Collies are among the friendliest and most inquisitive dogs around and LUCY is no exception,” Lucy’s mom Riette Creighton recounts. “When she was exploring the tide pools along our coast line on her daily outing, she encountered an octopus who was also very inquisitive. Lucy’s ball went into the water and she made her way to go and get it.”
That’s when the octopus sprung into action. Says Riette, “To her surprise and ours, an octopus emerged from under the rock and seized the ball right in front of her.”
The octopus grabbed hold of it in one of her tentacles and wouldn’t let it go. Poor Lucy. Her expression in the video is “what IS happening?”
Not only did the octopus grab it away, it swam away with it too.
“Lucy seemed very confused about how to handle this matter but she let the octopus check out her ball without a complaint,” says Riette. “The octopus seemed to be in the mood for a little mischief and he wrapped his tentacles around the ball and dragged it under the water.”
“Lucy looked at us questioningly, as if asking what to do next,” explains Riette. “After staring at the tidal pool for 20 minutes, hoping to see a tennis ball that will rise up to the surface but no luck! Someone is having a ‘ball’ of a party under a rock!” concluded Riette.
Lucy will get another tennis ball, but the octopus? Who knows what it will do with its land treasure in the depths of the sea.
Of Lucy, Riette writes, “She’s always willing to make a new friend and even to share her ball, but very few dogs ever have such an opportunity with a sea creature.”