# Story of your hedgehog :)



## i<3hedgies (Apr 25, 2010)

So I just wanted to know how you picked your hedgehog, how he/she got his/her name, and other fun stories about your hedgehog!  So heres mine....

I decided to get a hedgehog because I was flipping through a magazine called American Girl and I came across an article about a girl who entered a cake baking contest in order to buy a hedgehog. The cake that she made was amazing!! It was a circle with brown frosting and it had pretzel sticks sticking up from it ( like its quills). So anyway I saw the picture and I was thinking about how cute that hedgehog was and thats why I decided to get a hedgie!

Now how he got his name was because while i was on vacation in Florida we rented a DVD called Hachi to watch. It was about a dog and his loyalty to his owner. It was really sad and it made me cry but it was a true story, I thought it was a cute name and had a lot of meaning so I named Hachi, Hachi  
Im looking forward to your stories!


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

I had never thought about having a hedgehog. Actually, I didn't even know one could keep them as pets.

One of my sister's friends had gotten a hedgehog for her daughter (who is 8 years old) and after a while the child decided she didn't want the hedgehog anymore (surprise!) and was looking for a new hedgie owner. My sister told me the story and I just fell in love with the quilly one on first time I saw her, so I brought her home. As I said, I didn't know anything about hedgehogs then, but it didn't take me too long to realize how horribly they were treating her before -- tiny cage, crappy food, no wheel, water bottle... 

She was about 1 year old when she came to live with us, and she's been here for 3 months now. I don't think I can explain how much I love her, but I know you guys understand it well 

As for her name... the person who gave her to us told us she was a he, so initially I started calling "him" Eugene. After a couple of days my boyfriend and I decided "he" had quite the personality and needed a better name, and Col. Mustard just came to mind. A week later I figured we were talking about a female hedgie, but Col. Mustard just suits her really well and we kept the name -- even though people think it's more of a boy's name.


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## starby (Apr 25, 2010)

I first started wanting a hedgehog when I heard a story about a hedgehog on 'This American Life'. I was looking online for a breeder or hedgie for sale near me for a few months. I was in college at SUNY Geneseo pulling an all-nighter writing a paper for American Lit when, while procrastinating, I found a hedgehog for sale in Niagara Falls... a mere 2 hour drive from me! 

I e-mailed the lady, finished the paper, went to class and then got home expecting to get some sleep to make up for the all-nighter. When I got back from class though, I had an e-mail back from the lady! She was a breeder in Niagara Falls. I called her and she told me they had babies and they would all be gone if I didn't come get one soon. 

So instead of taking a delightful nap I got in my car and drove two hours to Niagara Falls. Wimbley was the first hedgie I ever held! I held a few others but the sweet little light brown one was my favorite.

I bought him and carried him carefully out to the car. I was being really gentle and as I started to drive I kept peeking into the back to see if he had ventured out of his fleece bag to see his new cage home. 

I didn't make it very far when suddenly my car started making this awful noise...then started kind of chugging as I made my way over the Grand Island Bridge... As I was coasting down the bridge all of a sudden the entire hood of my car was engulfed in smoke. SMOKE WAS BILLOWING OUT OF MY CAR. I couldn't see anything. I was freaked. I managed to get my car off the side of the road. Since my car was smoking and I'm no mechanic, I was scared so I reached in the back, grabbed the fleece bag with hedgie inside and yelled, "COME ON WIMBLEY!!!" and climbed over the guard rail and ran until I was far away from the terrifying scene that was my doomed vehicle.

I was standing in the bushes crying and clutching my hedgie bag to me. I called triple A, the police came too... a tow truck came to get me. The driver was really gruff and said, "Get in the truck." I said, "ummm... is it ok I have a hedgehog?" 

I hadn't slept in over 48 hours so the 2 hour ride back in the tow truck was pretty interesting... Poor Wimbley's first day with me wasn't the gentle stress-free transition I had hoped for.

ALSO, my car ended up being totaled... so that day, I lost my beloved first car but gained the love of my life, WIMBLEY!

The End.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

o.o Wow, Starby! Quite the exciting adventure...I would've been terrified if my car was doing that as well, especially if I had my brand new baby hedgie in the car with me!

My story is a bit less eventful than Starby's. XD But it still makes me smile to remember it.
Two summers ago, I decided I wanted my own pet. I was rather limited on choices, as I couldn't afford something like a dog or cat (no job at the time), nor was I allowed one. I wasn't allowed any kind of reptile or birds. So I was pretty much down to small mammals. I didn't really want a bunny, wasn't allowed a ferret, so it was down to gerbils or hamsters. Wasn't thrilled about the idea of those either, so I googled "small mammal pets". And lo and behold...hedgehogs came up! I clicked on the site out of curiosity and started reading. Found more sites and kept reading...Then ran to mom babbling with excitement. I did more reading for a couple of weeks on care and upkeep, then looked for breeders.

I found Gail Dick in Ohio to be the closest breeder to me that was answering my emails. Mom wasn't thrilled with the idea of a 2-hour drive (if she only knew how far some of you guys drove!), but agreed if I could get the money for all of the initial cage supplies and the hedgehog, I could get her. Saved up and we took a trip down to Gail's house to meet our first hedgehogs!

Once we were there, I was all excited to finally hold a hedgehog, but had to wait a bit. First we talked about why I wanted one, and what care information I knew. Finally, the awaited moment! Gail brought out three little girls. Lily was the first one put into my hands. Fell in love instantly with that wiggly little nose....And then she pooped on me! :lol: I giggled and ignored it, and kept holding her until she fell asleep in my lap. Finally I had to put her back in the cage so I could try holding the other two. I remember the second was a dark apricot color, and she was a bit more nervous. It took me a few minutes to get her to calm down enough to look around. I don't remember the third, though I think she was also pretty friendly. But my heart was already taken! Another half hour or so later, I was on my way home with my new baby Lily snuggled in a hedgie bag in my lap.


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## allears.fan (Mar 20, 2010)

My Story:

Earlier this year, I saw a news report on Verizon Vios Channel 1 about a raid in Texas and how they found over 300+ hedgehogs along with other variety of animals...I fell in love with the cute hedgehog faces and really wanted to help the texas hedgehogs (now known as tweeds).

I applied to adopt a tweed via hedgehogwelfare but never got an answer so I decided to go to craigslist.com. I saw many hedgehogs that needed homes, called one in NY that was rehoming their very angry hedgehog but thought since I wasn't hedgehog knowledgable I passed on the hedgehog hoping that he would get a loving home. 
Then i saw a breeder on craigslist who had two male hedgehogs left that was born in late December early January and went to pick him up at her house in Bayside. I was able to choose between the two and chose the smaller one....whom I named Wilbur. I named him wilbur because I had a ball with a W on it that I liked a lot and so i decided to choose a W name...Wilbur. (Although I was thinking about Beeker - from the muppets).


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## EryBee (May 23, 2010)

These are all really cute stories!

My story is this: I can't really remember when or how I got into hedgehogs, but I know last Christmas I got a vintage Steiff hedgie and a pair of hedgie socks from my parents. Then in the spring I kept on recieving plush hedgehogs in the mail from my mom (I'm in college 90 miles away from my parent's house so they like to send me plenty of packages and letters). The the books started to arrive, and they were quite mysterious. There was no sender listed and both my parents were quite astonished...although I suspect my dad had a hand in this. I read my hedgie books like a fiend (I HIGHLY recommend Hugh Warwick's book). At this point I knew that I wanted a pet hedgehog of my own, but after doing some research I didn't think I would be able to afford one or house one while at school. This realization was quite a blow. My boyfriend, Matt, listened patiently to me as I complained and moaned about my lack of a quilly friend. I did more research, read more books, gazed at more photos, etc. Then one day I went to the pet store on a whim with Matt- I think we were getting fish food or something- and there were three hedgehogs for sale. Two were irascible and nothing but quills, but one, a tiny baby, was friendly and immediately uballed and pooped on me. Well you know how it goes, the second a link is made you fall in love. At this point in time I was only vaguely aware of the cons of pet store hedgehogs, so I didn't see anything wrong with getting one. But I had to leave my little boy and go home because, as I mentioned, I didn't think I could have one. At the time school was ended and I was staying at Matt's place for a week until I could move into my summer apartment. The next day we were at his parent's house and I mentioned the little hoglet (for the thousandth time) and I guess Matt had had enough of me moaning because he said, "Let's go get him". I stared at Matt and demanded to know if it was a joke. Matt said no, and that I could bring the hedgie to his place to stay until I was moved in. He pointed out that I had just won a $50 gift card for Target, and I could use that to buy a big bin, some bedding, food dishes, litter pan, etc. So everything suddenly clicked into place. We drove like mad to the pet store and on the way I called my dad to tell him because he was all in favor of my getting a hedgehog. Did I mention that he was probably behind the mysterious books? Anyway, he offered to give some money towards my hedgie, so I accepted just enough to buy the remaining supplied I couldn't get at Target, like food and mealworms. We got to the pet store and I rushed in, hoping against hope the little guy was still there, and he was. I scooped him right up and marched to the counter proudly proclaiming that I was going to buy him. I brought him home and named him Phinneus. The rest you guys probably know because I joined HHC soon after. I have learned a lot on here, and Phin's quality of life has improved tenfold just by reading your posts and learning about your trials and tribulations.









This is my favorite picture of him


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

my story:

well, i am Russian, so hedgies are part of our culture... not as pets though. as i small child, i lived in Central Asia for a bit and a long-eared wild hedgie frequented our house.  now, as far as pets go, we used to be cat people, but my mom developed a life-threatening allergy and we can't have any cats anymore. no cats whatsoever. fast forward: i was a grad student and things were not going well for me. i wanted a pet very badly. no, i did not want a pet--i wanted a living creature to love and to take care of. maybe a dog, but my mom keeptsaying, 'sure, one day..' now, that is understandable because i am in a wheelchair and it's not like my mom needs more living beings to take care of. and i am not even sure what animals exactly she's allergic to, besides cats. well, this spring my patience got exhausted and i realized that i wasn't going to ask my mom for a pet anymore. i was going to get one. so the question was: what pet can i get away with? the years of seeing hedgies on CuteOverload flashed before my eyes...  and the matter was decided. i knew that it was meant to be. it felt right--it felt perfect. i started reading and found a breeder not too far from us. now, my stepdad had been wanting a pet too, so getting him on my side didn't take long. we got on the waiting list. we conspired and whispered. we exchanged glances and speculated about mom's reaction.

finally, we got a phone call and the pick-up day was scheduled. then the Day came. i think i was close to counting hours and then the actual minutes till Sweetie's arrival. it was like all holidays condensed into one. my stepdad's drove an hour to pick him up after work and then he went straight to pick me up from school. it was late. Sweetie was in a box. (yes, later i realized how horrible it must have been for him, but at the time i thought that the breeder knew better.) i was preparing a speech for my mom, replaying and editing it in my head. let me tell you that the speech didn't go well. i got too nervous, lost my hoped-for nonchalance, and the following dialogue took place (in Russian):

me (feverish look): mom, i really care about your opinion, but there are things that i just need to decide on for myself...
my mom went pale: OMG, did you drop out???
me: nonono... i have a hedgehog right here....
my mom: you scared me to death. a hedgehog, whew.. what a big deal. you and Bruce [my stepdad] take care of it.

three days later my mom was creeping into Bruce's room at night to marvel at Sweetie. three days later she was sewing him a little hiding place. he became a Big Deal in the matter of days. well, you know the rest: she is as bonkers about Sweetie as i am. furthermore, she saw how happy i became with him around, so... well... you know how many pets i have now.


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

What a great thread!
My dear, sweet husband & I have been married for 19 years now. He's alergic to animals & so we have never been able to have a pet. We don't have kids & so after a while, you really want something to love & take care of. I didn't think that I could ever have a pet. He loves basset hounds (from afar) & so I will get him a basset of the day calendar. Was too late this year & there weren't any left. There was another calendar - like cute overload, that showed a variety of animals that I got instead. There were a few really cute pictures of hedgehogs that we both really liked. I looked them up on the internet, found this site & read everything possible. The more I read, the more I fell in love. He was all for it, but we had to see if he had a reaction first.
We went to visit some friends in Dallas & I found out there was a breeder down the street. Our plan was to check them out in real life. (I had already jumped the gun & bought a cage & travel carrier.) So much for checking on his alergies - the breeder had a couple cats! She had 3 little hedgies. The first one she handed me was Cholla. He was so cute & friendly. I never set him down. Didn't even look at the other 2. Hubby knew. 
We drove the 5 hours back home, with me so worried Cholla would get car sick. He slept through the whole thing! And thankfully, hubby's not alergic to hedgies!


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## hercsmom (Jul 6, 2010)

Our story goes like this:

Let me start by saying I was always a dog person. Cats frightened me a little, but growing up I always had a dog. When I moved in with my hubby 13 years ago I begged him to let me get a dog, and his reasons for saying no were always the same..."We're not home enough" or "Our apartment is too small it's not fair on the dog" or "We just don't have time." Whenever he said this to me I would always think it wasn't fair, but I knew he was right.

One day at work someone was trying to give away their boyfriend's hedgie because they didn't have time for him. I got in touch with the girl, and she said she thought someone had already asked for him, but she would double check with that girl and get back to me. I phoned hubby at work immediately and asked "Can we get a hedgehog?" I was shocked when his first response wasn't no. He asked what hedgies eat, if they need played with, do they need a cage, all the valid questions. I had no idea, but I found this great forum with all the info I could need and more, and answered his questions. After about 20 minutes, he said we could! I thought he was teasing at first and I got mad, but he was being serious. He said to me "If you can take care of this little guy and he gets everything he needs and you really want him, then go ahead". So I waited over a week for this girl to get back from vacation to let me know if she still had the hedgehog. I was so excited for my new friend, especially since I hadn't lived with an animal since I moved out of my parents house. As it turns out, she had already given the hedgie away. But since I was so excited about the prospect of getting a hedgehog, I wasn't about to let it go. I went to our local pet store and there were 3 hedgies in a cage/tank together, sharing a pigloo, with no wheel. We brought all 3 of them out to play (which I now know is bad, but at the time I had no idea). They said 2 of the hedgies were about 3 months old and one was 6 months old. One of the 3 month old babies came over to me right away and nipped my finger (not a bite, I think he thought it was a mealie), and I fell in love with him instantly. I still had to wait almost another 3 weeks before we got him because I didn't quite have the money for his cage and supplies and an initial vet visit. That 3 weeks almost killed me! The pet store refused to hold him for me, so I phoned them every day to make sure my boy was still there. When I finally went to pick him and bring him home I was so excited!

Needless to say he is the perfect pet for our family. He sleeps all day while we go to work, and at night when I have to study or if we're watching tv, he's perfectly content to chill out in our laps and just be with us. It turns out Herc is a lot older than the pet store said, as the vet he went to 2 weeks ago said he's at least 10 or 11 months old, if not a year. Which makes sense why he only quilled the once after we got him! :lol: But we don't care, he completes our little family and we can't picture what our life was like before him.


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## RalphsMum (Oct 14, 2010)

Ralph came into our lives a few weeks ago and we can't imagine him not being there.

My partner has wanted a hedgehog for as long as I've known him at least but had never really done anything about it. I have some friends who got a little hedgie rescue from the Humane Society in the summer so we went over to check him out. Didn't think too much about it other than he was very cute and we were asking questions about what they do to care for him etc.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and my friends daughter had their hedgie as her facebook profile pic. I showed my partner and since his birthday was coming up, i asked him if he would like me to get him a hedgie for his birthday as he is otherwise impossible to buy for. He thought it was a good idea so I started doing the research on hedgie care etc and looking for available hedgies, particularly rescues or those being given up by other people. I emailed a few people, didn't really get anywhere and then suddenly there seemed to be no more ads - which i did think was a good thing at the time......

We did get Ralph from a pet store in the end, he'd only been there a day. Much as I don't really agree with pet store pets for many of the same reasons as alot of people on here...it seems Ralph was just meant to be with us and I don't regret our decision one bit. I still checked the ad sites afterwards though and suddenly there were loads of ads again..... :roll: so i do think that Ralph was meant to be our boy and come home with us  

We couldn't decide on a name and didn't want the "obvious" hedgie names. So we were throwing random names around...I always throw "Ralph" into any pet naming discussion as, to me, it's one of those names that no-one ever goes for. As it was, "Ralph" just stuck and when my partner threw "Frank" into the mix, we both looked at Ralph and said "Nah, he's definitely a Ralph!"  

Even though he was a gift for my partner, I am very much involved in Ralph's care and i don't mind at all as i love him to bits!


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## Julie Stuhr (Mar 21, 2010)

When I was 7 years old (I'm 21 now) I saw a picture of this white-bellied hedgehog in my grandma's magazine and I fell in love. But then I forgot about it and a couple years ago I saw a picture again - i re-fell in love or something like that. And I begged my boyfriend, but no .. In january this year he said I could get a hamster or a hedgie and I chose OF COURSE a hedgie 

She started out as Sonja, but that didn't fit for a cute little hedgie. So I re-named her: Bodil Kjær - who is a toy elephant in some old danish movies.


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## Jaimie (Sep 27, 2009)

It all started with looking at the pet ads on our local buy and sell forum cause I always look on there. I saw an add for a male albino hedgehog with cage, house and dishes for $200. I hmm'd and haaww'd for about 10min and then emailed the guy. Spike turned out to be a huffing puffing ball of quills in a small cage with no wheel and drinking from a water bottle. I will admit I knew NOTHING about hedgies when I took him home but thankfully found this site and learnt soooooo much. I built him a bigger cage, got him a wheel and a dish for his water, he went to the bowl and never looked back. Spike now lives in a 3X2 C&C cage with lots of running space.

After I look at only care info on here I read some stories about how snuggly and cuddly some peoples hedgie babies are and I decided that I wanted a baby hedgie that I could handle. I found a breeder that lives 3 blocks away from me and got Pooper (name is cause well he pooped on me 3 times a night for ummm bout 2 weeks). Well I was so in love with how interactive he was that I thought about another, thats how I ended up with his sister Sweetie a week later.


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

Starby--yes, what a story!

Lilysmommy--Harvey is from Gail (his former owners got him from Gail, that is).


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

I`m really enjoying everyone`s stories.  

I began thinking about getting a pet in the spring of 2009. I`m allergic to cats and dogs and didn`t want a reptile or a rodent so I was stumped. One day in August, my brother told me he'd been to a petshop where he'd seen a hedgehog. ¨It was all prickly and grumpy, kind of like you, maybe you should get that for a pet¨, he joked (that, by the way, is a gross exageration, I am not as grumpy as a hedgehog! Little brothers are such brats! :roll: :lol But it got me thinking, I hadn`t considered a hedgie for a pet, they`re not common in Québec, they've only been legal here since 2002. So I went on the Internet and did some research for a couple of weeks and the more I read, the more convinced I became that a hedgie would be the perfect pet for me, there even was a breeder in my town. Unfortunately, she didn't have any babies at that moment and didn't expect to have any before January or February. But she was really nice and invited me to come to her house so that I could hold her hedgies and see if I really liked them. Of course I did and she gave me the name of another breeder she knew well, 2 hours away from me, that had 2 babies born 10 days earlier. She was keeping one but the other was available so that' s how I got my Clémentine.  I went to pick her up on October 17th and my braty little brother and his wife came with me. All right, I'll admit it was nice of him and he's not always a brat. :lol:


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

For years I had an interest in getting an exotic pet, something other than cats, we have 9 but we're not hording them, they're all rescues and where kittens who either had really bad URIs or 'Fading Kitten Syndrom' from the shelter my mom worked out, original plan was to nurse them back to health and return them for adoption, but well...

Years ago we had a rescued ferret from the shelter named Weezer, and she was really fun, though we ended up giving her up to my brother, who's kept a herd of 2 to 8 ferrets over the past decade down in Phillie, she's old now but queen of the Phillie Herd.

My first encounter with an AP Hedgehog was at the pet store in the mall, our only pet store (we have none of the major chains) and Chuck the owner loves animals deeply, so I'm sure it was being well taken care of. He only had the one and I remember people looking at it, he had it out. But at some random point this spring I decided I wanted to get a pet, either a ferret or hedgehog, and got into researching hedgehogs and what care they needed, then decided to adopt one.

I call it somewhat destiny because there hasn't been any hedgehogs for sale since I got my guys. My first hog was Vera-Lee who was only with me for a short period of time sadly. I found her in Oswego, NY off of craigslist, your typical "12 year old daughter lost interest in her" story. After going back and forth, went down and got her, 3 hour trip one way. She was a wonderful hedgehog and the perfect first, she was social and calm, only huffed at me. After a month she became ill and stopped eating, and the vets couldn't find out what was wrong, which worries me that they might not be the best places. She silently passed away on me. She was suppose to be only a year old, but no one can ever be sure, but I know her teeth were really worn down to nubs and she was missing a lot, and get the feeling she was an old lady, since she wasn't overly active, she loved to explore but an hour was about the longest she would be out and back to bed she would go, she even moved like a little old lady. Poor girl.

Hester arrived a few days before Vera's passing, the idea was having two girls. Hester came from some weird animal lady near Cape Vincent, NY and I met her halfway. I couldn't go on to list the animals she told me about, a real talker who had me in the parking lot talking about all her animals and this animal expo she was going to. She showed up with a steralite bin with both Hester AND her brother together, and a giant mastif dog in her van that was barking, so of course Hester & her brother were balled up and hissing up a storm. I got a lot of information about her, and her mother. Hester was a pet of the lady's daughter who was going off to college, thus couldn't take Hester with her, but I get the feeling she didn't want the hedgehog, as she never handled her and only got a little handling from the crazy animal lady. Its one of the reasons why I think she's anti-social towards me, she basically was not handled as a baby and was roughly 20 weeks old. It also might be in her genetics, as her mother was said to be a really mean hog, the animal lady said she was suprised she didn't eat Hester and her brother, though I think she said she did eat a few other siblings. She came home with me inside a cardboard box, scratching to get out all the way.

Loki was put up for rehoming for basically the same reason as Hester. The kid was going to college and couldn't take him, but unlike crazy animal lady this guy knew what he was doing and actually had Loki up for 200 bucks, he said just so he'd only get serious answers from people who knew what they were doing. But his mother teaches the Vet Tech course at a local college, so he had a good home. I'd be his third home, as his previous owner had picked him up when he was a year old. Loki was only two towns over from me, so a short drive, and came home in a shoebox. I learned how shy he was, he came with a little pop tent and an animal sack that was big enough for him to get into (but small compared to hedgie sacks) and he actually spent most of the first week inside it. He's come out and eat and drink, maybe wheel for a minute or two, and then back in the sack with just his butt sticking out at me. Then I added a loft to his cage and he proceeded to go from sleeping in his sack to sleeping inside the vinyl tube. Worried he wasn't eating or drinking, I removed the loft and left him in the tube, which he called home for a good month. I got somewhat worried because after a month he was pretty much just sleeping and eating, maybe once a week he'd have a marathon on the wheel, but I had been told he was an avid wheeler who ran every night. This is where I learned about how some hogs just must have total darkness, once he had that, it was wheel city.

Its been fun though I still feel I don't give them enough of my time, though its kind of like Hester is anti-social and would rather be in her cage eating and wheeling, and Loki is shy and would rather to relax. Its probably just an excuse in my head, but at least I know they're being properly taken care of and have everything they need. Things to work on though.


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## pammie (Aug 31, 2008)

i got into hedgehogs totally by accident when they were brand new over here. i remember it was a bank holiday monday and my mum and dad were nagging me to give them a lift to the garden center near by that has a pet shop attatched. i was in a really bad mood because the last thing i wanted to do on my day off was drive them about. we got there and in a bit of a tantrum i said i was staying in the car. they went in the pet shop part for a look and after 5 min my dad came out to tell me to come have a look at a massive snake they had. i reluctantly went inside and totally ignored the snake i had spotted something far more interesting. they had one little hedgehog, she was in a tiny glass tank with just food water and a little arch to hide under. i had never heard of aph and only hogs i had ever seen were the wild ones. i asked the man to get her out and started quizzing him about her needs. he got her out and as soon as i saw that little face i was in love. he told me she was about 6 months old and had been there since christmas (this was may). i took her home there and then and started resech right away. we found all her needs and she was my spoilt little angel. we called her momo, my boyfriend had been watching some japanese film and they had a pet called momo when he suggested the name i knew it was just right for her, plus my team liverpool fc had a good player at the time called momo sissoko.

sadly my beautiful momo developed cancer in her mouth and died in january this year but, she was spoilt and loved from the second i saw her and she has got me on my obsession with hedgies.
now i have my girl holly, my boy klaus, my long eared pharaoh who i got not long after i got momo because i felt sorry for him stuck in a shop for 18 months, my tenrec welly, a rescue who will be going to his new home next week mitch and this week i will begin fostering 2 wild european hogs that are too small to hibernate.


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## ThePliny (Jun 3, 2010)

I am frequently asked why I decided to get a pet hedgie...this is usually followed by 'I didn't know you could keep a hedgie as a pet!'
Anyway, the story of Pliny starts with a horse named Captain. He was bred by an acquaintance who keeps Percherons. Captain turned out to be a jumper and was sent down to me for training. Sadly, soon after arriving my friends farm poor Captain broke his leg in the field and had to be put to sleep, he was only 3. Needless to say this was a very upsetting time- I had grown quite attached to the handsome young boy. When I got the phone all about the accident I rushed out to the farm so I could be with him, I then had to be back in town. My friend decided to distract herself by moving hay bales, and while doing this found a nest of orphaned baby mice. Clearly there had already been enough death, so she decided to try to rear them and starting doing research on the internet. A couple of the babies were soldiering along, so we purchased a home for them, but before they could move in, well, they died. Sigh. I now had an empty cage. I had been thinking about getting a little critter for a while. I had 2 degus while I was doing my undergrad (Remus and Romulus) and we had an iguana living with us for several years when I was in high school (long story that), so I was familiar with exotics. Anyway, I started doing some research into small animals and became fixated on hedgehogs. I remembered that my old riding coach had one for several years. So anyway, I determined that I needed a hedgie in my life, and so Pliny came into my world.
He is a pet store hedgie. I fell in love with him the moment he snuggled into my arms. The pet store had 3 males and 3 females. The caretaker in their department had been spending a lot of time with little Pliny (he had been there for a few months) and clearly he was also getting picked on by the other boys (can't believe the housed them together) as his ear was a tattered and he had a cut under his visor.
So I brought him home and haven't looked back since (it was Aug. '09- he was a b-day present to myself I guess!)
The name- well, I am a Classicist and I have yet to meet a Classicist who doesn't name their pets after some figure from Greek or Roman history. Pliny the Elder wrote about hedgies in his Natural History and was known for his general inquisitive nature. Pliny the hedgehog is definitely a curious little guy and doesn't seem to fear anything (just ask the cats and dog at the farm!) The name stuck, and it does suit him.
So yeah, there is the (truly bizarre) story of Mr. Pliny!


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

:lol: ThePliny, you just answered in your last paragraph the question I was gonna ask. Someone who calls their pets Remus, Romulus and Pliny the Elder has got to be an ancien history lover or a classicist. I have a degree in classical studies and once had a fish named Agamemnon.


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## ThePliny (Jun 3, 2010)

Yup, finishing my PhD in Classics. A fish named Agamemnon is pretty awesome! Funny thing is, I am more of a Greekist, but I always give my beasties Roman names.... go figure. For a while Pliny was going to be Agricola, but it just didn't stick or suit him. He is definitely a Pliny


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