# Hedgehog Fire Drill



## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

The building fire alarm went off tonight during prime hedgehog-running time. When the alarm went off, my small friend hopped off his wheel and ran to the very center of his cage, and didn't protest when I scooped him up into his grab & go box. It was a bit chilly outside, but our fire alarms are usually quickly resolved (we live less than 3 blocks from the main fire station), so instead of breaking out his heat-packs I decided to just give him a bit of a snuggle to keep him warm. 

Over wanders my building manager, who asks how the little fellow is doing, then unexpectedly jabs in to pet the hedgehog. Little friend snuffles and dives his nose under a corner of fleece, but otherwise doesn't huff, puff, or prick. Repeat with a few neighbours (who first ask what/who he is, then poke while I'm explaining that hedgehogs aren't really a petting style of pet...), with a similar lack of savage reaction. Good job, friendly hedgehog!

Once the alarm was shut off, he suddenly turned into a little squirmball. I could totally hear him whining, "Fire alarm's over, mum, let's go home and ruuunnnn!!!" Turns out, explaining to a hedgehog that the alarm was silenced but firemen are still checking the building for the alarm-trigger is futile. Who would've guessed?

Now we've returned home, and he's running again, and I just needed to brag about how cooperative my small friend was.

This also serves as a reminder: if you don't have a hedgehog emergency kit, it's fast and easy to make one.

My hedgehog's emergency bags are in two sizes. The bare-essentials grab bag is meant for unexpected displacements, where our building is evacuated and we might be in transit for a few hours, but the neighbourhood/city is fine and stores are functional. This bag contains:
- a small container with 2 nights food (I swap it out every new bag of food, to keep it from going stale). The container body/lid double as food/water dishes.
- a bottle of "his" water
- a roll of toilet paper
- a handful of heat-packs (disposable handwarmers)
- extra fleece & a snuggle-sack
It lives in a small, easy-to-carry box that always has a bit of fleece in the bottom. In sudden time-sensitive emergencies, I toss the bag in my purse, plonk hedgehog & any easily-reachable him-smelling fleece bedding into the box, snap on the lid (modified with ventilation screening), and head out the door.

I also have a more substantial emergency box for stay-home emergencies (power outages) or full evacuations (earthquakes) that includes a first-aid kit. If you live somewhere where winter storms are possible (or hurricanes, tornados, etc), think now about how you would keep your cage warm during a power outage. Having a plan for insulating with thick blankets, and getting battery-powered or chemical heat sources on-hand will save you some panic!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Great reminder to everyone! Emergency heating is especially important to start thinking about with winter coming on and the possibility of ice storms or other bad storms taking out power.

I'm glad the drill went well and your little guy behaved so well! Definitely something to brag about.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

Good boy Tibbers!  And good reminder! I have everything, just not all in one place...I need to get on that.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Great post. I'll have to think on this and see if I can add something substantive. I have everything I need to take Sophie on the lam, but is it 'ready to go'? No. Fleeing in a hurry would be a problem. Am I prepared to secure her in a warm environment if the power goes out for very long? Sort of yes. At a moment's notice? No. I probably score in the top percentile for organization and preparedness, yet need to improve in a couple of areas. Great post.


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## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

Other ideas for no-power heating:
- Hot water bottles (can fill by faucet if water heater isn't electric, or boil water on a camp-stove if you have a ventilated area)
- wool blankets from surplus shops are amazing insulators. Wash in advance (dry clean, or water-clean if you don't mind felting/shrinking it) as they usually smell funny. With power out, remove CHEs and toss over the whole cage
- moving cage next to a fireplace
- bodyheat (those wearable bonding-pouches or a big sweatshirt pocket would help)

Having a one-night vs several-night power outage is a big difference to plan for. I'm lucky enough to be confident any power outages will be fairly brief, but if the once-in-10-years storm hits and takes out power for a week, we'd need to go visit a friend with a fireplace. 

I've been thinking of moving Tibber's grab&go bag into my human grab&go bag for fewer bits & pieces to collect, but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's never important until it's too late, right? 

Still so proud of how cooperative and sociable he was. We always tease that in this building, it's not a fire drill, it's a Firealarm Party, and he was absolutely friendly enough to fit the atmosphere. I would've given him mealworms, but they do not make it onto my emergency-evac priority list! (If I had some sort of non-living treat that he liked, I'd probably toss it in the grab&go: bribery can make disasters way better. The human grab&go has a headlamp, otherwise he'd have one, too.)


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## JennifeerHolidaay (Sep 26, 2013)

This is so clever  I think I'll have to make one as well.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

There is this sticky about power outages. http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forums/13-housing-accessories/242-power-outage-heating.html It took me a while to find it so perhaps it needs to be in a better location.

Somewhere on here is a thread, that I thought was also a sticky on emergency evacuations and what to have prepared to grab at a seconds notice. No clue where it is.

I think we will have to do some moving of stickies so they are easily found.


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