Hello,my name is Nicki. I am 56 years old and live in Hanover in the north of Germany. I am very likely to be the world´s most enthusiastic fan of octopi. Nine years ago I fell in love with the famous Paul from Oberhausen who could predict the results of the Football World Championships then. In Hanover´s Sealife we had an octopus, too, who could do so and I immediately rushed to him - and I have been addicted to these animals since that very day.
The only thing that really bugs me is their extremely short life span. In these nine years I have seen so many of them come and go - and I´m afraid the next death is approaching very soon. My good vulgaris friend UPSI came to the Sealife 18 months ago and she was already pretty tall at that time. For three month now she has been our "record holder" at Sealife, but it´s soooo sad to watch that she is getting slightly weaker day by day. But she is still there and has a pretty good appetite.
As the Sealife had an octopus exhibition last year, there is still URMEL left, a very tiny little thing. He is absolutely shy and maybe highly-sensitive. He has had a strange and horrible-looking problem to his skin. Everywhere around his "shoulders" and head there are whit spots that seem to have destroyed his skin. Unfortunately he also has had two holes in his mantle. Maybe, he caused them by biting himself (autophagy??) or they are part of his disease, which, to my mind, is caused to some kind of nervous breakdown due to the stress of being caught. I only wish somebody could help him - and I wish to find a way to "talk" to him.
These are - in a nutshell - the actual facts about me. One thing i would like to add is that I myself have got Asperger´s Autism. I´m so sure that octopi have got this disease,too. Loving to be alone, communicating with only selected creatures, anticipating and avoiding potential dangers and sensitive towards noise and similar stress factors, they are a lot like me and the others of my kind. I have met so many people who are in love with octopus and a surprisingly high number of them have some kind of autism. This is another remarkable fact about these adorable animals.
That´s it for now. Have to go and look after Upsi and Urmel.
See you soon, lots of (Octopus) love
nicki
Nicki! Since you are a frequent visitor of the Sealife octopuses, please consider starting a journal of the animals that the aquarium keeps over time. 
