The Burial Saga

And then, there are the perils of urban pet burial. Initially, I planned to bury Sally at my boyfriend's house, underneath a beautiful little old Japanese maple. However, he is trying to sell & he has raccoons around. How would it look to potential buyers if the coons were digging up the yard? Much less snacking on my little animal? So I picked a little hillock in the midst of my development of condos & townhomes. I never saw anyone walking dogs there, or really frequenting it at all, although it is close to a row of townhomes. So I buried Sally underneath a pretty bush & left a piece of statuary, (hedgehog fairies...they were tacky as all get out, but a gift) to mark the grave.

Then I checked on her every so often. The first thing that happened was that the hedgehog fairy statue disappeared. Ok, no biggie, Sally was still in the ground. I checked on her two days later, and she had been dug up! Sally was there, still wrapped in the pretty green fern patterned cloth I buried her in. But she was a good 3 feet from her grave. Something or someone had disturbed her. This was just getting worse. I felt like the broken marigold.

Tubing, the sport of hedgehogs

She is tubular! African hedgehogs enjoy sticking their little heads into empty toilet paper tubes, or specially made tubes of craft foam that are the same size. They shake their heads about, flip over, roll around, walk around, trot around, all while wearing the tube. It is ridiculously cute. Some hogs will tube, then scoop up a bit of handy small stuff, like cat food or pelleted bedding, and then sling the bits around. Newbie is a confirmed tuber at 2 months old.

New baby hedgehog!

There is a new addition to the household! A tiny baby African hedgie, chocolate pinto female, currently installed in the bathtub for safety. Felicity, the original hog, is getting along with her just fine, as most female hedgehogs do. However, I am cautious about putting Newbie (that's a placeholder name; she'll get her real name soon) into Felicity's cage, because that has been strictly Felicity territory. There can be fights and biting. Newbie is vastly different in size from Felicity, so I am definitely feeling protective.

Newbie is an explorer. A tuber extraordinaire! As you can see from the pictures. She is amazingly social for a tiny thing. The breeder says that her litter seemed to have exceptional eyesight, and she does seem to see better than Felicity does.

Needless to say, I LOVE her. She and Felicity have been tubing in the tub together! See next posts.