MY LOGO IS AN OTTER. I’M OFTEN ASKED WHY?
An otter was the obvious choice for my logo. Read on to find out why.
Whenever I asked my son, Ben, what he wanted for his birthday, it was always the same reply “guitar strings”. A significant birthday was approaching, and I wanted to give him something more than that!
The previous summer, he had been on holiday and visited an otter sanctuary where he was mesmerised by the otters playing together. He fell in love with them and, jokingly, vowed he would buy an otter and keep it in his bath. It turned into a long tongue-in-cheek conversation about the pros and cons of keeping an otter as a pet. It was so much fun; I laughed until I cried. So, rather than a box of guitar strings, I adopted one as his 25th birthday present!
The adoption pack arrived, and Snotter, the cuddly otter, was given pride of place in Ben’s bathroom.
After Ben died, I was opening the boxes that had been packed up with his things, and sitting on top of one of them was Snotter. Ben wasn’t a man for keeping stuff, so I was touched that he thought so much of Snotter.
Six months later, I was in Edinburgh training to be a celebrant. You can read more about what drove me to become a celebrant by watching my Why Story. On the last day, I was travelling into the city centre by bus and questioning whether being a celebrant was my destiny. I was feeling bittersweet. Had Ben not died, I wouldn’t be training to be a celebrant. “Oh, Ben, am I doing the right thing?” I asked. At that very moment, my bus pulled out to overtake another bus. It was a double-decker, and on the rear was a full-length picture of an otter with the words “Otterly awesome” written beside it. I took it as his answer. But to be sure, I checked the back of every bus for the rest of the journey in and out of the city. I never saw it again!
I told this story to my otterly awesome friend, Jodie Bews of Everlongart Studio & Gift Shop in Alford, Aberdeenshire, who designed my praying otter logo, and I love it! I’m not the only one. When I hand out my business cards, everyone comments on how beautiful it is.
Snotter, the original otter, sits proudly next to my TV so that he is always in my line of vision, and he gets daily cuddles. He is the gift that just keeps giving!
I’m a supporter of the UK Wild Otter Trust, where I adopted Snotter. You can support them and the otters by clicking here. I’ve also sponsored an otter enclosure at the SSPCA’s National Wildlife Centre. Click here for more information.
So, that is why my logo is an otter! Otterly awesome, isn’t it?