Good day chaps, I have just returned from the most marvellous reception for Horace, he is settling in extremely well and as long as none puts Cedric and his cohort of time wheel hamsters in the same room as him I am sure everything will be splendid!
Now, I have a lot of report reading to catch up on, and some old reports that are in need of review in light of recent events. Or so I am told by Simon who is sure we may have missed something vital to the continuity of space time and prevention of any number of apocalypses, or some such thing!
So in light of all of that I am going to pass you over to Lucy Littlepaws for another instalment of her tremendous Influential Otters series!
Hi there everyone, its Lucy Littlepaws here and today I had the privilege of interviewing Peter Paddlefoot of the intrepid Temporal Exploration Team number 1 in which he travels through time and space (not outer space, the other kind that means area) with is highly adventurous partner Zsofia Smoothcoat. I caught up with Peter in the temporal exploration team office where he was seated behind his extraordinarily neat desk which was covered in neatly stacked notebooks which seem to have been labelled and arranged both by size and content. There looked to be an extremely complicated colour coding scheme involved too. Peter himself looked happier than I have ever seen an otter in the midst of writing a report! Peter assured me he was due a break from report writing as was happy to get started to I launched right in with my first question.
So Peter, you seem like the sort of otter who wouldn’t do something without a good deal of consideration, what made you sign up for the temporal exploration team?
Hello Lucy, yes, you are correct, I do like to put a lot of consideration into things, and despite the short time we had to sign up for the temporal team assignment, I did just that. First of all I considered that it was an opportunity of a lifetime and a perfect extension of the work I have done in the past in the fields of exploration and aquatic archaeology. I also considered that this sort of exploration would be key to the furtherance of science and otter knowledge which quite honestly sounds like an amazing thing to be involved with!
Indeed, it does sound exciting for a young otter keen on exploration! Can you tell us a bit about your inspiration, what made you choose this field of study in the first place?
Honestly I have wanted to be involved in archaeology and exploration for as long as I can remember! When I was very little my mum told me stories about my great great uncle Horatio Paddlefoot who was an intrepid adventurer and explorer! He was amazing he explored the rivers and seas all over the world, or possibly the UK as I am not sure inter-continental travel had been invented then…but he explored a lot of places and my mum even gave me his genuine explorer’s satchel which he used to carry his measuring stones and sandwiches! I use it even now to carry my notebook and other useful bits and pieces and it is still in remarkably good condition!
Horatio Paddlefoot, he sounds like an amazing inspiration, can I read about him in the history books?
Unfortunately for history, his stories seem to have only been passed down through our family’s pond side storytelling traditions. He never seemed to write anything down! When I decided to go into archaeology and exploration I decided that I would make sure nothing I discovered went unrecorded!
I am sure this is an excellent asset on your temporal exploration adventures! Talking of your temporal team, Zsofia Smoothcoat is a very enthusiastic young otter, what is it like working in the team with her?
You might not think this as we have very different characters, but Zsofia and I get on extremely well. Our different approaches compliment each other perfectly, Zsofia is excellent at getting out out of trouble and I ensure that none of the details are forgotten in the excitement! And of course, we have both share a love of exploring!
Oh yes, we read about your adventures in the first time trip to Brazil, can you give us any idea about what might have happened on subsequent trips?
That trip was very eventful, not to mention a little confusing as we met the otters of the Rainforest Raft for the first time for us, but not for them. Since then I have got to know them a little better and I believe Commander Longwhiskers is in the process of reviewing our reports so I don’t want to give out any spoilers or damage time-space continuity. Brian Russetcoat has given us a lot of long talks about not telling people things out of order, so long that even I didn’t want to write the whole thing down! I don’t think I want to risk another one!
Zsofia said much the same when we chatted, but it was worth a try! So if I can’t even get a hint, we will move on to a couple of quick more personal questions to allow our readers to get to know you...
Your colleagues are very keen on hats, do you have a favourite type of hat?
I do like hats, I think my favourite would be the fedora, however I have found that they do not like me much and so I leave the hat wearing to my fellow otters who wear them very well!
What is your favourite midnight snack?
Oh that one is tricky, it is either, pike on pitta bread or a brown trout wrap.
Lastly, when you are not off exploring time and suchlike, what do you like to do to relax?
I am actually quite partial to a run along the riverbank, I am a founder member of the Fast-Paws running club!
Thank you Peter that was very interesting chat! I am sure our readers would like to hear more about Horatio Paddlefoot in the future!
Lucy Littlepaws (Journalist)
The Otter Chronicles 