Meet the crew...

Back row left to right – Mr Bearing, Erasmus, Pratibha, Dana, Captain Roughwater, Reizo, Jules, Cook Pumpernickel, Kale, Sal, Sol

Front row left to right- Ake,Tiikat, Sisu, Kai

(these are just the permanent members of The Purrpoise crew)

  • Captain Mikko Kaspian Roughwater (our wonderful captain)
  • Reizo Uchiumi (first mate)
  • Dana Fahim (chief engineer)
  • Mr Bearing (navigator)
  • Erasmus Barnes (marine biologist)
  • Jules Switch (chief technician)
  • Pratibha Joshi (marine scientist and researcher– everyone calls her Prati for short)
  • Kai Kalwai’a (deckhand)
  • Sol and Sal Sarfas (twin deckhands)
  • Ake Järvinen (the oldest sailor on board)
  • Cook Pumpernickel (the cook of course!)
  • Kale Ogorki (cook’s amazing assistant)

Honorary crew members:

Sisu, Kitti the Kittiwake and me, Tiikat!

My Best Friend: Sisuanna (or Sisu)

I am so lucky to have Sisu as a best friend. She constantly amazes me and makes everything fun. I have never met anyone quite like her. She is super confident and brave, which makes me feel more so. Creative and funny, there is never a dull moment when Sisu is around. You never know what she is about to come up with next. She seems to be interested in everything!

Sisu loves reading books, sometimes about things I don’t understand, but she is very good at explaining things to me so I don’t feel left behind.

Because Sisu has been travelling the world for her whole life she knows about more things than I do and I love learning about what she has discovered. There are some things I know more about than her, so I teach her things in return too. Her dad works on a submarine, so is away most of the time and Captain Roughwater is her guardian.

Even though I am a cat and she is a human I like to think we are related as we have the same colour hair. ‘Here come the fireballs’ the captain likes to say when we run into a room.

Some of Sisu’s favourite things (she has lots and lots!)

  • Acting out plays
  • Conducting experiments
  • Pulling pranks
  • Break-dancing
  • Me
  • Reading
  • Talking
  • Being sneaky
  • Telling stories
  • Learning about Science
  • Historical figures and facts
  • Her dad (I haven’t met him yet)
  • Pockets
  • Sunflowers

Things Sisu doesn’t like

  • Being made fun of for her red hair (I don’t understand why people do this)
  • Her dad being away so much
  • Being told off
  • When she can’t do what she wants
  • Cucumbers
  • Adults who don’t take her seriously because she is a girl
His beard looks better with my orange tail as a moustache, even if he doesn’t think so.

Captain Roughwater

Captain Roughwater is the best captain around!

Ok, I don’t know lots of captains but I think he must be. He knows an awful lot about the world and what’s in it. I love to sit on his shoulders reading the newspaper with him, or helping him navigate the seas. He also is very good at telling jokes, and laughing at mine. We do this quite a lot, because I do love a good joke!

I am very lucky that he has allowed me to stay on The Purrpoise, despite my enemy (more on her later.)

Things he loves:

  • Reading newspapers and books
  • Sailing The Purrpoise
  • His crew
  • Saving animals
  • Telling stories
  • His dinner
  • Badminton
  • People who teach him things and others who want to learn
  • Doing courses and learning new things (to ‘get my brain ticking’ he says. I have never met anyone who knows so much!)
  • Laughing
  • Helping others
Why does Badminton have the word ‘bad’ in it?

Things he doesn’t like much:

  • Kitti the Kittiwake making a mess on the navigation bridge windows
  • Captain Turso
  • Rudeness
  • Being woken up
  • Missing family
  • That he can’t do and learn everything
  • Selfishness
  • Laziness (sometimes I can be a bit lazy I have to admit)

Cook Pumpernickel

Cook Pumpernickel is angry, angry, angry which is why she is my enemy!

Ok, ‘enemy’ might be a bit strong but she is certainly not my favourite person in the world. After trying to kick me off the ship and chasing me with her knife it was clear we were not going to be firm friends. I don’t know why she doesn’t like me.

I must admit that Cook does make some delicious food! I have yet to dislike something that has come out of her kitchen, though sometimes I feel like I would add an extra spice or two if it was me. She also has a beautiful singing voice which she uses when she is cooking. Most of the songs come from famous musicals, or so I’ve been told.

Things She Loves:

  • Cooking
  • Singing when cooking
  • Cookbooks (she has shelves and shelves of them)
  • Fresh herbs
  • Empty plates (she likes people enjoying her food, except when they take it secretly! Tii-hee)
  • Old movies and musicals
  • Being the boss of the kitchen
  • Teaching cooking secrets to Sisu sometimes (and rarely… even me! She does have to be in a very good mood for this one.)
  • Seasonal, local (sometimes unusual) produce
  • Licking the mixing bowl when she thinks no one is watching (I caught her once!)
  • A spotless kitchen
  • Art

Dislikes:

  • Pawprints in her kitchen
  • Anything being moved in her kitchen (I learnt the hard way!)
  • Me
  • Looking in the mirror
  • Smiling (though I have caught her a few times while she is cooking!)
  • Wearing her hair down
  • Talking about things that aren’t about cooking and food
  • People who ask too many questions (especially me)
  • The mice on the ship (esp Carlota, not that she knows her name, who she calls ‘that nasty rat’)
  • Children most of the time (she says they ask too many questions and are messy…)

Carlota Camundongo

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Carlota Camundongo is rather hard to ignore. She is an unusually big mouse and has an even bigger personality to match. The first time I heard her voice I thought that there was a much bigger animal in the room and was shocked when I realised it was just a mouse (OK maybe not just a mouse! Carlota certainly wouldn’t think of herself like that). Even though I am a cat I make it a rule to never ever hunt mice!

Carlota acts like the commander of the other mice, even though she is younger than many of them. I don’t think she has an official position though.

If Carlota described herself in three words they would be ‘Fabulous, Fabulous, Fabulous!’ (She has told me this several times!)

Likes:

  • Pasta (her favourite types are fusilli and farfalle, which look like little bow ties!)
  • Cheese (almost, but not quite, as much as me)
  • Bossing others around
  • Painting her nails
  • Dancing
  • Being the centre of attention
  • Shouting
  • Me (especially as I bring the mice food from the kitchen)
  • Her mouse community
  • Being the best (she told me to write that!)

Dislikes:

  • Cook Pumpernickel
  • Being mistaken for a rat
  • Bullies
  • Not being listened to
  • Being copied and followed around too much by the smaller mice (though I think she secretly likes the attention)
  • Bedtime (I think she might be afraid of the dark)