Creating the exhibits - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 196

Betty Powell feeding the aquarium's first sea otter pup in the bathtub at
home. (Photo by author)
food like clams, squid, and shrimp. (Sea otters have expensive tastes
in food!) We bought a plastic toddler wading pool, which he floated
in like a furry cork. Typically, of course, as soon as he was put in
the little pool, he would poop and the water had to be changed.
To m had warned us about letting his fur get soiled or too wet, so
he would be taken out of the pool and dried, first with towels and
then with a hair dryer. Tom also warned us about the tendency
of sea otters to overheat because of their dense fur.
Unless he was asleep he spent much of the time letting us know
with a piercing scream that something or other was not to his lik-
ing. As a result, not a lot of work got done while he was at the
o‹ce. Because sea otter pups require around-the-clock care, at the
end of the day he went home with one of us for the night. There
wasn't a lot of sleeping done when it was your turn. I remember
Julie Packard and Linda Rhodes coming in bleary-eyed several
mornings after their turn with the pup.
The nights the baby otter spent with the Powells will never be
forgotten. He spent hours bathing, pooping, being dried with tow-
els and a hair dryer, and crying. Betty and I, meanwhile, duti-