Everybody in Rodeo Reef
It is a small town, so everybody knows everybody. Here is who turns up when a story starts going sideways.
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Cowboyapuss
The bravest, biggest-hearted little wrangler in Rodeo Reef: a young octopus cowboy who looks after the town and every critter in it. Brave without being reckless, warm, funny, and impulsive enough to learn most things the hard way. The tan hat is slightly too big for him and never comes off, the bandana is barn red, and all eight limbs are usually busy at once. When it is all going sideways he hollers the same thing: “Hold your seahorses!”
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Sheriff Seahorse
The wise old lawman of Rodeo Reef, and the one keeping a quiet eye on Cowboyapuss. Calm, dry and kind. He wears the town’s star, he is never in a hurry, and he tends to answer a panic with a question.
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Granny Grouper
The town elder: warm, a little grumbly, and always right. If Granny Grouper says the current is turning, the current is turning, and the sensible thing is to already be swimming home.
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The Crabbe Brothers
Three well-meaning, bumbling crab handymen. Whatever has come loose on Main Street, they will be along to fix it, all three of them, all at once, and the fixing is usually funnier than the breaking.
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Pip
A nervous little pilot fish, and Cowboyapuss’s loyal best friend. Pip is the conscience of the pair: the one who asks “are you sure about this?” at exactly the right moment, and then comes along anyway.
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The Sea-Cows
A herd of roly-poly, gentle sea-cows who graze the Seaweed Prairie. Cowboyapuss watches over them, which mostly means counting the same soft heads twice and shooing them out of the tall stuff. Nothing hurries a sea-cow.
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The Turtle Family
Steady neighbours out past the Seaweed Prairie. Turtles do everything slowly and get everywhere eventually, which makes them the town’s quiet proof that patience wins.
- Troy, the dad
- Unhurried and unshakeable. He fixes things properly the first time.
- Penelope, “Penny”, the mum
- Patient and sharp-eyed. She knits kelp blankets and misses nothing.
- Achilles, the son
- About Cowboyapuss’s age, and desperate to be fast in a family famous for being slow.