He's Here!

Yesterday morning Norman had a chess tournament at DA, then we piled into the car and headed towards Charlotte to pick up our little hedgehog. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there, with the kids coloring and playing video games to pass the time. He was handed to me when we met, and hedgie seemed pretty mellow and inquisitive -- not prickly really, but rather tickly. Boo and I also met his mother (who rolled in a ball and huffed), his father (who pulled his quills down over his face) and his foster mother (who was sweet and I held briefly). [Aside: he has a foster Mom because his two litter mates died, so he was placed with the slightly older members of a second litter.] We piled back in the car with hedgie in a travel cage on my lap. He drank from his water bottle, nibbled a few kibbles of food, hid under a bandanna, and then finally curled up and went to sleep. He slept through a quick stop at McDonald's and another for gas, but woke up and drank some more water just as we were arriving home.

I had a hard time getting him out of his little travel cage, as he huffed and flinched every time I touched him, which would cause me to flinch too. So I tried a trick I'd read about and slid a spatula under him to help me get my hands around him. I held him briefly as he snuggled against me with his little heart pounding away. He explored his cage a bit, then I held him again briefly -- once more the spatula and the pounding heart. I think we'll get used to each other given a little time. He drank a bit and wandered the perimeter of his cage, then curled up in his blue plastic igloo and napped. He was still asleep when Simon and I headed to bed around 11:00pm.

When we woke up he was curled up in his igloo, but I know he did his nocturnal thing during the night. His wheel and bandanna have been pooped on, his toys have been pushed around, and the igloo has a nice piled nest of shavings inside. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see him in action a bit today. I briefly lifted his igloo to take a picture of him all curled up, but decided not to wake him and have him huff at me. Poor little guy had enough stress yesterday.