# Impulse Buy Vent post.



## OllieTheHedgie (Aug 4, 2012)

I'm sorry but I had to get something out that I think most people here will understand.

I check craigslist probably every day and I just look at some of the posts and I have been seeing a lot lately about people giving up their hedgehogs because they are "allergic" to them. I understand if you are allergic to a pet because I am allergic to cats but most of the time when I see posts like this the hedgehog isn't even in the right living condition. They are in small cages with no wheel and what not. To me that shows that they didn't even do the research. I actually believe I am allergic to hedgies, every time I hold Ollie my skin itches like crazy and gets very red. I would never give up Ollie for the world. He is my baby boy and even if I itch when holding him, I would do anything for him to be happy and healthy. I hold him every night any where from 30minutes to 2 hours. I know some people are honestly allergic and I understand that but some people you can tell it was a impulse buy and its sad to see a hedgehog that isn't getting the right care. I wish I could help them all out but I know I cant because I need to focus on my baby Ollies needs and spending time with him and at the moment don't have room for another hedgie. When I'm older I plan on having multiple hedgies and I'm hoping to have most of them be rescues even though I know they can be harder to handle but that's something i'm willing to take on. Sorry for this little vent guys but none of my friends are really into hedgehogs so I figured you all would understand more.


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

This is an older post but I wanted to tell you that I understand. I have people try to put me down sometimes for how I care for my animals they say things like "It's just a (Insert animal name here) it doesn't need all that stuff" urg. They make fun of the level of care I provide and I feel shut down when I try to encourage them to care for their animals properly. Really bugs me. I don't see what the big deal is. *I* decided to have a pet not the pet. Why wouldn't I give my pet best care I can. People get pets and give them up so hastily and it breaks my heart. Especially when it's something that could have been fixed or avoided with proper research.

I was actually about to start a rant thread too, but I'll hijack yours because it's related to substandard care. My mom has been dating this guy who she is now engaged to. He has this little Shih Tzu female. About a year ago they decided it would be a good idea if she had puppies. I'm pretty sure he got this dog from some backyard breeder and he has no paper work for her, she's supposedly purebred but who know, he has no family health history for her. He also feeds her terrible food, doesn't brush her often enough, doesn't take her to the vet often enough doesn't bathe her often enough, etc. Anyway shortly after my moves in with him and they get this other little male Shih Tzu puppy to eventually be the Dad.

Recently the male became old enough to start mating so My mom and her boyfriend have been keeping track of the famale's heats and making sure they mate. The first time they thought the female was pregnant she had a miscarriage (they think) I asked them what the vet said and couldn't the vet do an ultrasound to determine pregnancy and they laughed at me and said "we're not taking *a dog* to the vet for that!" That pissed me off. This also implies that they are doing no prenatal care or check ups of any kind. They probably still have her eating the cardboard food. They got some tips from a friend about getting her pregnant again and the next few times she mated it was obviously causing her pain. So they took a break for a while and suddenly I heard the other day that she had a puppy. This morning I found out the puppy didn't survive. I felt like telling them it's because they had no business breeding her in the first place and the puppy died because they are not caring for their dog properly. I'm so mad at them for doing this to their pet who they are supposed to take care of. I don't know how to confront them about it without it becoming a massive argument and I know that they will dismiss what I say because I'm the crazy person who "spoils" her pets (read spoils as provides basic care necessities). I'm so angry that I keep swearing by accident and I have to re-write the sentence so it's appropriate to post.

Sorry I just totally hijacked this thread with a really long sort of off topic post but my feelings about this are really close to the surface right now it all sort of came out. I think I just saw that you're angry about people not caring for their pets and treating them as disposable and that's really what I feel my mom and her boyfriend have done. I think we're both saying that basic care is not too much to ask. Do research before getting into pet ownership, and for F sake don't treat a life as disposable just because it's not human.


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