Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Daffodil's Big Adventure

This is what we all need. http://www.boredpanda.com/cute-zoo-animal-tweet-off/

I had a cute animal vet visit the other day. Poor Daffodil is losing some of her quills. Or lots of her quills. Hedgehogs do a quilling thing when they are young where they lose and regrow quills, like a baby teeth kind of a scenario. At first I thought maybe we were dealing with that. But then I had to do some research and found out mites were very likely what was going on. Poor baby.  

Poor cranky baby. Daffodil is the sharpest and the crankiest of my girls. Of course, if you were losing your quills you'd be cranky, too. However, she's only been losing her quills for a couple of weeks and she's been kinda cranky from day one. Just sayin. 

The vet's office told me to allow time in my schedule to let her come slowly out of anesthesia should that be required at the check-up. Because if they roll up into a hissing crank ball there is very little a vet can do to check them out to make sure all is well. 

Fortunately, Daffodil did not require anesthesia. She did cooperate. The only unpleasantness was a) the pooped in carry bag which probably happened while she tried to climb out while I drove the 5 miles to the vet. Her bristly little head was peeking out at me. You can be certain I carried her slightly differently on the way home. b)The saddest scenario happened though while I was cuddling her when the vet went to check the skin flakes for mites. She was crawling all over me and I think she caught her toenail on a metal zipper I had on my jacket. 

I saw blood on my hand and thought she had stabbed me with a quill. Then I looked down at my shirt, bloody footprints all over it. Sure enough her little paw was bleeding. The vet walks in and recoils. "Augh!!! Did she bite you?!?" He stopped the bleeding and gave me 6 little syringes of topical medicine to get rid of mites. (Three for Daisy because they love to share with their friends.) Her little foot is fine. All is well. 

Already it feels like the loss of quills is stopping. Now regrowing them might get dicey. She may stab me on purpose. Fortunately, she only has a strip of bald sparse quillage. 

Serials and Scenarios ~ Spiky Balls and Iced in Mondays

I am currently experiencing and ice storm here on the edge of the Might Mo. That would be the Missouri River which is just down the old interstate from me and is very, very cold right now. 

All schools are closed. Many other locations are shut down. People are experiencing epic snowday fun inside their homes. I'm cleaning. And getting a few blog posts posted because I'm a slacker and have not done much of either the past few weeks. The doggos are going to get a bath today. The round headed little kid of cuteness is sliding up and down the stairs checking out the Hulu marathon upstairs and the crazy haired grandma downstairs. 

Two bloggers featured me last week. Well, not exactly me. My hedgehogs and my blog. But I'll claim it's all about me. 

My cute little daughter blogger (who shockingly still likes me after living with me for two months) posted about her love of this here blog. Silly girl who made a beautiful baby. You can read her post here. 

And my hedgehogs as writing inspiration is here. As you will see, they are not exactly muses. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ A Hedgie Update

It's been a bit since I gave you an update on the ol hedgies. 

What I've learned thus far in my 6 months of hedgehog ownership...or cohabitation.  They are prone to grumpiness. As nocturnal animals they do their cruising after dark Most of our waking ours the hedgehogs are cuddled up inside their toasty little plush pineapple nests. Yes the live in plush pineapples kind of like SpongeBob SquarePants.

 Sometimes we haven't gotten upstairs to turn the light on so it's already dark when we head up. We'll flip the switch and catch them out and about eating. Speaking of eating, it's as adorable as you might think. Tiny little crunch, crunch, crunches. Drinking from their water bowls, dang cute. Rare occurrence to catch these events, but adorbs when we do.  They poo in their running wheel every night, so every morning I put those bad boys in to soak. The bedding isn't too stinky though. So that's great. Mostly clean water, food and clean the bins every ten days or so. I totally recommend the big plastic bins. So easy to clean! Because hedgies aren't naturally social as in they'd love to have a servant provide food and water, keep the wheel clean, and then leave them the beep alone, we humans have to put the majority of the work into the relationship. Hence the cuddle bag. I made little hidey bags they can curl up in and hang out with me in. 

If they are running loose on a lap they will 1) just go and if that means fall on the floor, so be it. They have no fear of falling. 2) poop and pee indiscriminately on me or whatever else 3) climb and with the pooping and peeing, uhhhh, I've had a few unpleasant moments. The good news is that when they are first real active and running around they get most of the potty out of their system and once it's cleaned up its good to go and the risk of a caca covered shirt diminishes.  My girls also have a tell and since it's both of them I'm assuming this is a hedgie trait. If their little tail pops up they are going to be peeing real soon like. So towels are a surface they get to run on. 

But the bags are mostly sleeping bags so the ewww is way less. Plus they are getting handled, I may be able to do a few things while hanging with them, and they are reinforcing our scent with love and care. Or something like that. 

But the grumpies are just still there. Daffodil presents the most obvious of grump stances. The forehead grump. The quills kind of mohawk while the nose disappears. When the forehead is fully mohawked then the stabbing commences. Yes. Stabbing. They head butt with their sharp little quills. This is probably why you might hear about people's pet hedgehogs being jerks. 

But we love them anyway and fortunately think it's kind of funny that they try to stab us to death every night when we pick them up. Hmmm. Maybe hedgehogs are kind of like perpetual teenagers. 

Scribbles and Scrambles - 1 Week of Lessons

We've had our pokeballs for a week.

Things I've learned about hedgehogs! (Many of these comments could be applied to people as well. just saying) 

They are as cute as can be. The disappearing and appearing ears, eyes and forehead action is just adores.

At least 2 of the worlds' beagle population are VERY leery of hedgehogs. Tonight is the first time they are sharing the same section of the room.

Hedgehogs poop when they walk or crawl around on humans. Or in the wheels or balls. It only lasts the first 10 minutes or so but poo is involved. Then there may be a warm dribble....insult to injury. Hedgie diapers....hmmm wouldn't need pins!

Hedgehogs are surprisingly cuddly. They don't mind being petted on their quills and it's not at all unpleasant as long as you don't go against the grain. They love to curl up and really like the buddy bags I made. Dark and cozy corners.

Quills are not barbed. But they are sharp. Hedgies who are startled, cranky or loners are very good at getting that across. They roll up and the quills extend. The texture is a combination of wire brush, dried out Christmas tree and dryer ball. 

Touching a puffed hedgie is touchy ( ha-ha ). You have to scoop up under their soft belly. They puff and huff sometimes while you are attempting that. And it's a scary thing to see. 

One more thing. This caught me by surprise. Daffodil chomped me. She was agitated. And I hadn't washed my hands before picking her up. Just one bite. But it was sharp and she didn't let go right away. Later, when I researched I found a few key things. 1) they are visually impaired. 2) in the wild they eat worms and small snakes. 3) food or perfume on your hands can grab their interest and make them think you are edible.
I did learn that I handled it well. I didn't put her down, scream, or toss her. Don't want that experience again but I learned from it. Win. And best of all, no scar.