{"id":63,"date":"2012-09-19T22:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T03:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scorellis.com\/?p=63"},"modified":"2012-09-21T08:48:09","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T13:48:09","slug":"how-to-pet-a-hedgehog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scorellis.com\/?p=63","title":{"rendered":"How to Pet a Hedgehog"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yttrium, sleeping on my lap on her first night at home.<\/p><\/div>\n

We had taken very good care of her. \u00a0One night, after staying with us for almost two weeks, our little pet hedgehog, Yttrium, became very listless and unresponsive. We feared a hibernation, so we warmed her up by holding her and we made sure the house was 72 degrees – I even started up the furnace. \u00a0And she perked up. She was running around and seemed fine, even up to a couple of hours before….well, before the next evening.<\/p>\n

Friday night: Et. brings her downstairs; he is distraught. Yttrium lifts her head just a little bit, weakly. Then she becomes all slack again and can hardly lift her head. I tell Et. that she is fine, she just needs to be warmed up. \u00a0An hour later, she dies while I am holding her. I feel something terrible and unexpected – my heartwrenches. Perhaps the soul of a hedgehog is equally prickly–it tears through me.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I had become so close to an animal in a very long time! and I am no beginner at this. I have rarely been without 10 – 12 pets in my house. \u00a0Nevertheless, this one caught me completely off-guard. Perhaps it was because she was so young – still a baby, really. \u00a0Maybe, I saw so much of myself in her. \u00a0The way she would roll up into a ball when scared, but would so easily unroll, and just, well, let you\u00a0connect<\/em>\u00a0to her. \u00a0As I held her, I kept thinking,\u00a0Maybe she is just hibernating….<\/em>Maybe she is just hibernating. \u00a0I kept holding her, hoping the warmth would wake her.<\/p>\n

Finally, I knew she was truly gone. I cried for an entire hour.\u00a0My boy, Et,, he wept too. \u00a0 In the middle of the night, he awakened, and woke his sister with his crying. \u00a0You are thinking, “This is ridiculous. \u00a0It’s just a little rodent thing. Does this guy know what a sap he is?” \u00a0Funny, that’s exactly what I am saying to myself, too, as I write this, with tears streaming down my face.<\/p>\n

The next day, Saturday, I sent an email to the vendor at the reptile and animal expo that sold her to me. I explained what happened: \u00a0“I am not sure if there is even anything that can or should be done or said. We loved Yttrium. I’ve never been this upset about a pet. I\u00a0just\u00a0wanted you to know this happened.” \u00a0I hoped his other hedgehogs were OK.<\/p>\n

He replied with, “Call me.” and his number. \u00a0He answered on the second ring and immediately apologized, and said that this hadn’t happened in a few years? As i spoke to him,\u00a0I was trying so hard not to cry on the phone with this guy. And you know what? \u00a0He got it, and understood. \u00a0This man loves hedgehogs as much as I do and told me I should have another one. \u00a0Frankly, I didn’t want another hedgehog. \u00a0How could any creature compare to Yttrium? \u00a0I decided to follow my own advice. \u00a0“Giving up” is failure. Don’t fail.<\/p>\n

He told me to come see him at the expo, and he would let us take home another hedgie, no problem. \u00a0So we drove there and of course we got lost three times on the way there due to too much emotion in the car, but we got there eventually and we brought home a new bundle of prickly joy; an albino hedgehog we named Sodium.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, a very unplanned side-affect to naming our animals after elements on\u00a0the\u00a0periodic table. \u00a0Yes, Et. will know many of the elements, but if any professor should mention Yttrium, I guarantee a tear fest. \u00a0I can see it now…<\/p>\n

“Ethan, why are you crying” asks the chemistry professor.<\/p>\n

“It’s just, I loved Yttrium so much!” He’ll answer.<\/p>\n

“Well, maybe we should talk about copper or nickel instead?”<\/p>\n

“Waaaaaaaaah!!!!! My cats!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hopefully this won’t happen, hopefully he will be able to compartmentalize actual element names from pets names. \u00a0I digress….I was talking about my crazy love for a hedgehog.<\/p>\n

How did this happen? \u00a0How did I fall so hopelessly in love with that beautiful creature? \u00a0I don’t know. \u00a0The new hedgehog, named Sodium, is just another animal to me. The\u00a0spark\u00a0<\/em>that Yttrium had, it just isn’t there. I haven’t bonded with her like I did with Yttrium. \u00a0She is less friendly, and less interesting to hang out with. \u00a0More prickly.\u00a0Regardless, I am making the effort. \u00a0 Sunday night, we left Sodium alone. \u00a0We wanted her to get used to her new home. \u00a0Happily, she is eating and drinking healthily.\u00a0 We are measuring her food and water intake, weighing her, and holding her for an hour a day.<\/p>\n

It aggravates me that Sodium curls up into a very tight ball whenever we try to handle her. \u00a0Monday night, I sat with her on my lap for an hour, simply pondering how to deal with her. \u00a0I then began to gently prod at her prickles. \u00a0Ah-hah! a reaction! she uncurled\u00a0just a little bit<\/em>\u00a0when I pet her in a certain way. \u00a0Sure enough, 15 minutes later, she uncurled completely and said hello to me. \u00a0It was very rewarding, and I felt a little closer to her. \u00a0Still, she wasn’t Yttrium. \u00a0Et. and I would both give the world to have Yttrium back (you have no idea the power this creature held in her little paws!!).<\/p>\n

Do you know what the worst part of this whole\u00a0thing\u00a0is? \u00a0I roll a lot of video around here. I video everything. But the only video I have of Yttrium is of our cat, Copper, sniffing her while she slept on me and then Copper giving me a funny look. \u00a0I don’t understand my inaction. \u00a0It’s like, now I can’t even show you how wonderful she was to us. \u00a0Perhaps therein lay the answer….finally, I had something that was all mine and Et’s–something that\u00a0just\u00a0I and my boy would share. \u00a0She was OUR pet. \u00a0How unimaginably sad you know I must be when Et. told me on Sunday morning that he didn’t want another hedgie. \u00a0That the new hedgie would be mine.<\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon, when the sun was low in the sky, we laid Yttrium to rest in the garden in a Hamilton watch box, under a nice stone. Sunday, we planted a flowering shrub by her marker. I hope she will find comfort here, and I hope\u00a0that, if hedgies have souls, that she is hanging around, and watching over our garden, and my prickly little soul, too.<\/p>\n