# "Your hedgehog seems to have so much personality!"



## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

When people tell me any of my pets seem to have a lot of personality, it quite frankly confuses/somewhat offends me.

Primarily because it seems that the people who often say this seem to have thought that animals, such as hedgehogs, lacked personality.

From my experiences, any pet from a fish to a dog has personality.

My Haku is a mellow betta, and will (what I assume) happily greet me at the front of his tank when I enter my room.

Kashi is of course, the biggest cuddle monster, and the most dramatic hog ever. He uses his grumpiness/"fear" as an excuse to climb on me for some more cuddles.

My two cats make quite a duo. My black cat, Cha Cha, likes to think himself as dignified and kingly, but in reality he is just about the laziest and clumsiest cat ever. LeRoux, the orange tabby, while he does have a mental issue, is forever a kitten, always talkative and on the move.

I feel like people who don't take interest in their pets/don't have pets are the type of people who are always so surprised about pets having so much personality.

So when someone says "Wow, your hedgehog seems to have so much personality!" I do not take it as a compliment. My reaction is more like, :?: 

Anyway, that's my rant for today :lol:


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## ReginasMommy (Apr 13, 2011)

I suppose I get where you're coming from, though it's kind of understandable why less common pets would cause this reaction. I mean, most people don't know anything about hedgehogs and end up making some unoriginal joke about "oh is it blue haha" grr :evil: So I suppose I can see where they're coming from. Especially because it's not something you would generally think about in regards to a small, not completely domesticated animal.

But I TOTALLY agree when it comes to animals like cats and dogs... my dog Mercedes has SUCH a personality. I mean, every night at nine, she wants to go upstairs, and she wants my mom to go with her, so if my mom is on the couch, Mercedes comes over, looks at her, and barks. Then she kind of takes a couple of steps towards the stairs, and if my mom doesn't get up, she barks again. But as soon as my mom says "okay, Mercedes, let's go upstairs," she runs up the stairs. We also have an alarm on our first floor that my parents set at night, and in the morning, Mercedes won't go downstairs until someone else has gone first and turned off the alarm. She's also super smart. I'll be in my room, and Mercedes will be running around, and my mom will says "Mercedes, Caroline's in her room," Mercedes will come running to my room. And if we're just lazing around on the weekend in different parts of the house, she makes her "rounds" and checks on everyone. I'll be reading in my bed, and Mercedes will walk in, look at me, and walk out, and do that until she sees everyone else. And if we say we're going in the backyard or front yard, Mercedes knows which is which, and runs to the proper door. And she carries her toys around with her, and if she forgets it in the basement or something, she'll either scratch at the door to go get it, or I'll be like, "Mercedes, go downstairs and get your toy!" and she'll run to the basement and bring up her toy.

So, sorry to turn this into a long story about Mercedes and her habits (I can't help it, she's so sweet and funny!). But yes, I think non-pet owners don't realize how awesome and wonderful and unique pets can be.

Here are some pictures of her:
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[attachment=0:a177dpsf]100_2240a.jpg[/attachment:a177dpsf]


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

What a smart girl Mercedes is! I loved hearing about her quirks, thanks for telling 

I know what you mean completely by non-pet owners not understanding. Just because it's a different species does not mean it doesn't have a personality!


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## Annabelle (Mar 19, 2011)

I don't think I'll ever understand non-pet people. 

My two cats are total opposites (one is an introvert and the other is definitely as extroverted as they come), my horse is scared of literally everything that moves....or doesn't. And Annabelle, er well she's "mad" at me 99.9% of the time :mrgreen: 

How people think that animals DON'T have personalities will forever baffle me


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## xspiked (Feb 27, 2011)

I don't blame the non-pet people as much because I don't think they really think about pet personalities too much, but I agree that everyone should realize that it's so obvious all animals have personalities.

I know this adorably loveable dog named Oscar who was the sweetest boy and for some reason, rarely barked. Everyone who knew him was so blown away by his personality that when other dogs bullied Oscar, all the people were offended :lol:. He liked taking a bath :shock:, and hated Golden Retrievers with a vengeance. Just golden retrievers. When he's outside, everyone's invisible as far as he's concerned. He only cares about finding a place to pee on, much to the disappoint of all those who thought he was such a looker  .
Haha, he's not my dog and I'm gaga for him. 

Anyways, back to the topic. I think some of those people who say that are just being careless with words. I can see people saying it, when they really mean "Oh, he/she is so spunky/extroverted". Just a thought  . We should give people an intensive course on pet personalities


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## panda (May 23, 2011)

I have to agree, non pet lovers confuse me.. how can you NOT love animals?!
Anyway, i do have to agree that every animal has its own personality, but i can also see how people would find different personalities entertaining or surprising.
My dog is convinced she is human. Norma is just hilarious, i love having her out and watching what she does, since bringing her home in May i'm still figuring everything about her out.
My beardies both have very interesting personalities, they are both complete opposites in many ways, Orion, the baby, is actually pretty chill, almost sluggish most of the time, but he does things here and there to surprise me, just yesterday he was on my lap and suddenly went full speed sprinting across the room. he is a bit of a nut sometimes. Loki is older, the rescue beardie we brought home more recently, he is a complete nut, hyper, almost like a puppy. Tears up his setup everyday so we are constantly cleaning up after him, he loves to be out of his cage, seemingly more so than Orion, but both seem to fight for my attention like they are little brothers, and both LOVE cuddling up with me. Loki actually will make escape attempts, i think he had never been able to explore with is previous owner so now he is just ready to see the world, we ended up getting a lizard leash after he tried to jump at the assistant at the vets office, and then jump off me towards a cart at the pet store when i was looking at the leashes.. haha.


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## xspiked (Feb 27, 2011)

panda said:


> I have to agree, non pet lovers confuse me.. how can you NOT love animals?!
> Anyway, i do have to agree that every animal has its own personality, but i can also see how people would find different personalities entertaining or surprising.
> My dog is convinced she is human. Norma is just hilarious, i love having her out and watching what she does, since bringing her home in May i'm still figuring everything about her out.


I think this thread has gone slightly off topic/rant haha. Norma seems adorable! My friend also has a dog who thinks she's the same species as everyone else. Only, she thinks we're all dogs. My friend's cousin has a dog that thinks she's human and ignores other dogs XP.

I can understand how people don't love animals though. It's part of _their_ personalities.  :roll:


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## panda (May 23, 2011)

oh i guess i should have clarified hehe.. Maggie is my dog, Norma is my hedgie. :lol: 
but Maggie is hilarious, she's quite the diva at the house. shes almost like having a bratty kid in the house. :roll: but we all love her brattitude haha


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## panda (May 23, 2011)

to sort of go better along with the topic, i think it really is just that some people really dont think to connect humans to animals or animals to humans.. even my fiance used to say things when we first got our beardies like "why do you treat them like babies almost.. they dont care if you handle them.... why do you treat them like people" but i explained things to him and i think after getting to see how they act/getting to know how the animals bond he realized why.. alot of people will say that reptiles in general to not become attached to you as well as other animals & i strongly disagree with this. maybe some reptiles.. alligators??.. snakes???.. dont become attached, i cant say for sure, but my beardies at least seem to act like they have a bond with me and with him as well & thats because of their personalities.
any dog, cat, animal i ever met, they all act differently. just like people-you never meet any two that are exactly alike. they all have different needs, wants, & personalities.


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## CritterHeaven (Feb 21, 2011)

I read a quote once that was something along the lines of a person not being complete until they have loved a dog. I think most of us here would agree with that assessment but replace the term dog with the term animal. In our household we have a dog, 2 hedgehogs, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, seahorses and a myriad of other fish. 

To give the people who say things like this to you some forgiveness, maybe what they mean more is that he has such a strong personality or something. I have two hedgehogs, one male and one female. The female has what I would call a strong or striking personality. She makes a little huff or two when I wake her up. Then up her head pops and she is ready to go. I am not sure I have ever seen her ball up completely, it just is not part of her personality. She wants to see everything and eat everything (she managed to catch and eat a firefly the other night outside) and annoint with everything (incl the previously mentioned firefly). The male is quite timid and huffs and pops and ball sup frequently. He will peak out when you carry him around up high and when it is time to cuddle up near my neck at night. His personality is much less "striking" than Toffee's.

Anyway, I expect they mean it as a compliment in that your baby is far more interactive than they expected!

We must forgive those non animal people for they know not what they are missing!!! Their loss in other words!


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

Llama (toy poodle) and Sweetie also have "strong personalities" over Vlada and Harvey. in fact, Llama's personality is noticed by pet and non-pet people alike.  

for me, non-animal people are much better than those who get a pet and then neglect or even abuse it. at least the former are honest with everyone including themselves. but bad pet owners make me completely furious.


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## panda (May 23, 2011)

very good point, i would rather someone who doesnt love animals to not have them than for them to have them and neglect them or even worse!


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