# Loki!



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

Not to be confused with Puffers' Loki of the North. I have here some pictures of my second hedgie, the baby of the house, my Loki.

Unfortunately, not only is the quality of the pictures not wonderful, and the lighting bad, (the sharpen filter didn't help much at all, sadly) he's shy. In a few of these, you won't be able to see his face very well since he insists on hiding it.

According to his breeder, Loki is a silver snowflake, and he carries the pinto gene. He doesn't show any pinto patterning, but some of his kids might, were I ever to breed him. (Not to worry, folks, I have no intention of doing so. I don't have the heart or stomach for it, so Loki will never be a daddy.)









"Ohaidere."









"Blankie! <3"









"Down! Want down!"









"I said I wanna go down! Right now!"









"D< This isn't the soft side!"









"*Facescrunch* You smell funny."









"DO NOT WANT!"









Hedgehogs do not make for good masks.









"Diggy time!" (Yes, I made this blanket and embroidered it, too.)

I will try to get better quality photos at a later date. Hopefully his next photoshoot will go a little better; perhaps he'll behave, and myabe, just maybe, I'll get a few shots that aren't dark and grainy.


----------



## krbshappy71 (Jul 17, 2009)

HI LOKI!!!!


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

Rofflecopter. Loki says 'Bug off, I'm napping.' He sure does hate to be disturbed, bratty thing...


----------



## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

Awe, he's so chubby ^-^ What a cutie

Yeah it looks like he's a snowflake from the pictures, but it might just be the angle, who knows

Anyway he's adorable  Love his little grumpy face


----------



## PJM (May 7, 2010)

Loki is lovely!! I'm sure all your love & affection will un-grumpify him! Thanks for sharing the pictures. As always, I love your captions.


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

@Shae: =o He is NOT chubby, how dare you! Poor little fella, are you trying to give my piglet an eating disorder? -shot- 

He's definitely a snowflake, he has a ridiculous amount of white quills. I looove the snowflake pattern on hedgies, so pretty. <3 (He'd better be the colour he was advertised as, I paid - well, Mom paid - $195 for him!)

He always looks kind of cranky, it's funny. Except when he's trying to nap on me, then he just looks cute.

You should have seen the interaction I had with him last week when I went to the drive-in with my parents. I bring Loki sometimes because we go around the time he gets up, and there's no excuse for not spending time with him. He sleeps in his pouch or blanket while we watch the movie.

Anyway, I had just finished giving him a bath because he was dirty, and was transferring him into his blanket. He just kind of sat there on his back, and I said, 'Now, you're not going to go to the bathroom on me, are you?'

I swear to god, he grinned at me. As if he was saying, 'You're darn right I am!' He ended up not doing it, but he certainly looked like he was telling me that was exactly what he intended to do. It was so funny. Sometimes, I have to wonder how much they understand of what you say to them. I know he knows his name, and I'm pretty sure Quillamina knows 'Quilly,' at least. ...Actually, at this point, she probably thinks her name is Pig. Yes, there's a story behind that. Not a hugely amusing or long one, mind you, but it's there.

@PJM: Isn't he precious? I brought him home when he was five weeks old, and oh my god, I fell in love instantly. Actually, I knew I had to have him when I saw the picture his breeder sent me. Loki has sort of an interesting story of how he came to live with me, as well. I won't bore you guys with the details, unless you really want to hear it. ;3

Also, captioning photos is fun. <3


----------



## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

aw can't wait to see more pictures. My first reaction was wow! what a big guy! But Sela if you say he's not chubby then I guess he's just big boned.  

Stories are not boring, tell more stories!


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

He'd better not be fat, I didn't give him permission. I picked up a small kitchen scale today, though, so I guess we'll see.

Loki's story isn't heart-wrenching, the way Quilly's was. Loki had a pretty good five weeks before he came home with me, actually, and was, in fact, his mother's sucky baby. According to the breeder, he followed her around constantly and tried to get her to nurse him even when he was too old. Poor little thing didn't understand why mommy didn't want to feed him anymore.

I had decided that, for my nineteenth birthday in February, I wanted a hoglet. I hadn't yet had the opportunity to raise a baby hedgie, since Quillamina had come to me as an adolescent. The 'cute baby stage' was something I had completely missed out on, and while I wouldn't trade Quillamina for the world, I wanted desperately to experience a baby hedgie.

I found the HHC breeder list when I googled 'hedgehog breeders ontario' - isn't the internet wonderful? - and contacted a few of the ones closest to me. One didn't respond at all, one was fairly unpleasant and seemed hesitant to answer my questions about her next litter...and one was all too happy to help me and answer any questions I had about her next litter of hoglets. When was she expecting her next one? How much did she charge for a baby? Would I be able to meet my future hoglet's parents, if I were to adopt a hedgehog from her?

All these and more, she answered patiently and politely. As it turned out, she was rather sick and couldn't have people constantly tramping through her house to meet the parents of her litters. She could send pictures, though, and said she would, when it came time for me to get my baby.

I ended up being disappointed, at first. I waited too long to contact her again to say I was ready to adopt my baby, having needed to clean a space for him in the room adjacent to mine. They were all spoken for. Understandably sad that I had missed my chance, I emailed her back to thank her for all her help and to wish her well.

No more than a day later, I received a message from this selfsame breeder. Luck was on my side, it seemed; a gentleman who was supposed to bring a down payment for the last remaining hoglet hadn't come through with it. She had, in fact, considered keeping him herself when this happened, but instead thought of me, and how disappointed I had been when she had told me there were no more hedgie babies available. He was now completely unspoken for. Naturally, I leapt at the chance.

When the picture came through, I was hooked. That tiny baby was going to come home with me, no question. Unfortunately, we hit a snag. Since the breeder was located in Kitchener, I couldn't exactly drop off the down payment, and my bank couldn't do money transfers. Paypal wasn't an option, because the breeder didn't have an account.

I'm not sure what made her decide to trust me, but she told me I could come down and get the baby, without need for the down payment. As long as I paid for him in full when I got there, he was mine. I called my mother, who had just gotten out of work, and told her the news, half-expecting to be told that it was out of the question.

Apparently, it wasn't, because not an hour later, we were on the road to pick up my little boy. He was tiny, possibly the runt of the litter, and had scabbing on each ear. One ear, I noticed when we were back in the car with my little piggy son in his hole-filled cardboard box (this was what they put him in to go home) had a chunk missing from it, and it looked recent. He didn't appear bothered by it, but to this day, he's sensitive about his ears.

Holding my new baby on the way home, he decided, when I took him out in the tiny scrap of a blanket his breeder had sent him home with, to try to climb my shoulders and go everywhere that he shouldn't. Due to his mischievous behaviour, I decided, as I put him back in his box, he should be dubbed Loki, and so he was.

Due to the way events unfolded themselves, I believe Loki was meant to come home with me. It was in September of last year that I adopted my little piglet, since I didn't want to wait until my actual birthday. Who knows whether or not babies would have been available in the dead of winter? It seemed unlikely to me, and besides, when something like this happens, often it's your heart that takes charge. He celebrated his half birthday the day I turned nineteen, and will have his first birthday the second of August.

<< Sometimes, I get a little teary-eyed when I think about how much he's grown. It seems like just yesterday that he came home, all tiny and nervous and not knowing where he was.


----------



## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Hahahaha, he is just the cutest little "pleasingly plump" guy. Love the captions! :lol:


----------



## Keltrey (May 31, 2010)

He is really cute. I love his color and I wish you and him many years of happiness.


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

D< Keep calling him fat, and somebody's going to gets their brains bashed in wiffs a baseball bat. -shot-

<< Srsly, he's not fat. I weighed him and he's more than 120 grams lighter than his big sister. Somewhere around 470 or something I think, I have to check the book in which I wrote it down.


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

Update, ladies and gentlemen: I have Loki's baby pictures! His breeder sent them to me today, and after squealing over them and thinking I was going to cry because oh my god he's grown, I decided it was time to share them with all of you.









This was the first picture in which I ever saw Loki. I fell in love with him right away, looking at that tiny scrunched-up little face and those ittle bitty paws. He was so little back then...









He was even tinier when these were taken. He's grown up so much, and so well...amazing to see how far he's come from being that teen tiny little baby he was.

Sadly, Loki's birth mother (I consider myself his mother now, sooo... <<) died a few months ago, the last silver snowflake in her herd. I feel a great amount of sympathy for Ms. Burt, and I hope she is able to remember the good times she had with Lacey.


----------



## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Baby!Loki is super cute! I'm sorry to hear about his mom though, that's too bad.


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

Wasn't he the most precious little thing ever? I was sorry to hear about his mother, too, I hadn't had any idea that she had passed. I don't think she was an older hog, either, so I have to wonder what happened...


----------



## PJM (May 7, 2010)

I love the baby pictures! He was the cutest little grumpasaurus ever!!


----------



## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

He was adorable as a teeny baby and he is still adorable now!!!


----------



## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

i really liked your story about him.


----------



## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

D'awwww
baby hedgies are just so adorable
I'm so sorry about his birth mommy though


----------



## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

Great story, he's such a cutie


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

@PJM: 'Grumpasaurus'? That is hilarious, I don't know where you got that term from, but I love it.

I told Loki about his mother last night, but I don't think he understood a word of it. Loki's English is limited to words like 'blankie' and 'mealie,' methinks. << And 'bath,' that's his least favourite word in the entire language, I do believe. Don't think he knows 'vet' since he hasn't needed to go there very often, and his last wellness check was fairly pleasant.

Little beast showed his bratty side this evening, landed a fairly savage bite on my gut. I think he was trying to attack his blanket, which he does every night, and got me instead. Still, even if it was accidental, OUCH.


----------



## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

Sela said:


> Little beast showed his bratty side this evening, landed a fairly savage bite on my gut. I think he was trying to attack his blanket, which he does every night, and got me instead. Still, even if it was accidental, OUCH.


Hedgies have quite a bite. Kashi gave my finger quite a chomp this afternoon... I think my finger smelled like something strange... but it hurt :/


----------



## PJM (May 7, 2010)

Sela said:


> @PJM: 'Grumpasaurus'? That is hilarious, I don't know where you got that term from, but I love it.


Yeah, Sela, thought you would appreciate that.  Close relative to the Chompasaurus Rex. And distant relative to the Poopasaur. :lol:


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

PJM said:


> Sela said:
> 
> 
> > @PJM: 'Grumpasaurus'? That is hilarious, I don't know where you got that term from, but I love it.
> ...


Ohmygawd. Marry me please, I love you.


----------



## PJM (May 7, 2010)

Sela said:


> Ohmygawd. Marry me please, I love you.


Sorry Love, been banned from Canada ever since the "accident" 2 years ago. But we'll always have hedgehogs!


----------



## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

That is a lovely story and Loki is so so cute! I can't wait to have a baby hedgie one day. But right now Pepper takes up enough of my time (and money) so I'll probably have to wait till he's gone.. eep, but I really don't want to think about that.  Thankfully he's only 1 1/5, so I should have him for a while. I wish you many years of happiness with your adorable little guy!


----------



## Sela (Apr 10, 2010)

PJM said:


> Sela said:
> 
> 
> > Ohmygawd. Marry me please, I love you.
> ...


Aw. I'll have to snuggle my little Lokums to mend my broken heart.


----------

