Cute Overload

[plumtreeblossom]

Chiropractor has been called, and hopefully I will score an appointment soon, but I'm so bored with blogging about my thrown-out back. So instead I will blog about the awesome and squeeful fact that last night I got to hold a baby pet hedgehog. Death by cuteness.

kalliejenn2 and her sweetie adopted him yesterday from a breeder. He is about the size of a small croissant. He has bristles, and tiny feets, and a tiny nose with tiny nostrils that flare with each breath. He squiggled in my lap and climbed my boobies. He is swooningly adorable.

I never knew until now that hedgehogs could be pets. I have long wanted a de-scented pet skunk, but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is not exotic-pet-friendly in the least, so they're illegal here. But I'm glad kalliejenn2 and her sweetie were able to legally get this cuddly, prickly little ball of darlingness.

Comments

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

Hedgehogs are legal pets in Massachusetts? That's... terribly tempting.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

yup...and they make awesome pets...they're really low-maintenance, and they don't have that icky rodent stink.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

My sister had pet hedgehogs in high school. They were named Quigley and Daisy.

You must have been really lucky to see a sweet one, or we must have been really unlucky, because our two were the meanest little buggers you could imagine. Pets shouldn't leave you bloodied. My sister could barely handle Daisy with gloves. Quigley could never be handled without charging at you and trying to poke you with his spines or trying to bite you.

But they still were cute with their little tiny feet holding up their very round bodies, and their undersides are sooo soft.

After striking out on Quigley, the goal was to get another one (this time a female) and hope that maybe a partner would bring Quigley around. Perhaps they could have little hedgehog babies (which are born without spines!) and it could be a little business. They never fought, but they never got around to having babies. A veterinarian would later confirm that Daisey was also a male. Hence the lack of babies.

Are descented skunks really illegal? I think that's too bad, but cities sometimes (but not always! Ferrets in NYC is a classic example) have good reasons for outlawing certain pets. The fear may be that a pet skunk could contract or spread diseases with a wild skunk, etc. joyeous and I petted a descented, domesticated skunk at the Topsfield Fair. They drool/foam at the mouth a little, but are otherwise completely innocuous pets. They have cute faces. I think it would be hilarious if you could take one on a walk on a leash in Davis Sq.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

if you were housing two males together, that may have been part of the reason they were uppity...males shouldn't live together as they don't get along well, and can sometimes even kill each other.

my other guess is that they probably weren't handheld from the time they were babies. hedgies that are handheld from a young age generally grow up to be pretty sociable little guys...ours loves climbing all over people (even strangers) and snuggling with us, most likely because the breeder he came from was awesome and handholds babies from 10 days old.

it's too bad you had somewhat bad experiences with them...they are really awesome pets!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Ha, no. I understand that they do make wonderful pets, it's just that our experience was laughably bad.

My sister got them when they first came out as pets in the late 80's, early 90's, and I imagine a lot of progress haS been made in how to raise them. Because these could never be handled, I imagine (as you said) they were never, ever handled as babies.

I like the fact that they are born without spines (which I guess makes sense.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwww!

[squibbon.livejournal.com]

Hedgehogs are one of the things that makes me a little sad that PuppyMonster happens to have a high prey drive. They really are excessively cute.