Hope you aren’t sick of seeing Esme yet– it’s hard not to take pictures of her,  she is just so cute.

See those?  They are prickly.  Little Gypsy-girl got her first bath tonight to try and help her with the hard work she is doing growing new quills.  “quilling” is apparently quite painful.  There is a site — hedgehogworld.com– which is helping me learn about being a good mama to this ball of pins…

Behavior during quilling is often very antisocial. However, if you stop to think about what the hedgehog is going through during this time, especially the final quilling (usually around 8-12 weeks of age), it is very understandable why they are uncomfortable. Quilling is a major event in their life that is comparable to cutting teeth all over your entire body, plus hitting puberty at the same time. The good news is, they will get over it. This phase varies in length between hedgehogs, some are over it as short as 4-5 days, others can take 2-3 weeks or slightly longer. However, if you continue to be stubborn and handle them even when they act like they want nothing to do with you that doesn’t involve bloodshed, they will improve again, and most likely be very near their normal non-quilling temperament.

Cutting teeth all over AND hitting puberty at the same time!  (Bloodshed, gulp!) Poor Esme!

She has been very quiet and sleeping much.  We have been holding her and telling her nice things and hoping that when she is all newly quilled she will be a happy and playful.  We got her some toys today, and I will look for some sort of clue in the morning that she at least checked them out.

Some answers to questions I have been getting:

1.) Where in the world does someone get a hedgehog?? A breeder is a great place find one.  There are lists of them online by state.  You have to make sure that hedgies are actually legal to have as a  pet in your state, as there are a handful of places where they are not. We found a lovely woman here in MD named Stasi– http://www.terrapinhedgehogs.com.  I cannot say enough nice things about her, she is like a gnomely saint of hedgehogs.

2.)  What is it like to have a hedgehog? I can only answer this from the standpoint of a few days mind you!  You have to do a lot of reading up on Hedgies as pets.  They are so cute in their Alice in Wonderland croquet ball sort of way– but they are an exotic animal requiring special considerations and forethought.  They are prickly sometimes.  REALLY prickly.  When they are relaxed they are not so much– more like a hairbrush.  They are nocturnal.  The have been around since the Dinosaurs.  The are insectivores.  They eat a cat/dog food kibble mix for the most part with the additions of some bugs and good-for-them people food. They need a lot of exercise and to stay warm.  They live from 3-6 yrs on avg.

I was hoping– but I don’t think they will actually do laundry like mrs Tiggy-Winkle!  Esme likes to curl up on me while I knit and snooze under a little blanket.  She sleeps a lot right now.  This is part of being a hedgehog-baby.   I am hoping that she will grow to be a wonky and wonderful member of our family.

3.)  Why Esme? It means beloved.  She is named after the Esmes I know and love– Esme Squalor, Esme Cullen, Esme(relda) the gypsy girl loved by Quasimoto in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.   It was hard to choose between that and Amelie.  This was the movie I was watching while sick with the PLAGUE before the Holidays ( remember?) as a comfort while I was lying there dying.  I love that movie and Audrey Tautou’s character.  Jim gave this movie to me as a Valentines present once.  I think it is perfect.  I was lying there in a cloud of  it when he came in and told me that his friend (and amazing artist) Allison had gotten a hedgehoglet.  I was out of my mind with adoration. Thank you so, Allison.  Maybe she’ll have a sister Amelie someday.

The girls really like her and are excited to discover who she will grow to be as well.

I am too tired to tell you all about it tonight,  but I am in a very gnomecentric creative time right now,  It is time for the gnome-swaps on Ravelry.  I’ll be finishing and swapping a gnome and a gnome hat.  I am making lots of gnomie things and will share them as them are finished.  PLUS, Esme is going to need a gnome hat, right?

I hear Esme starting to scritch around in her cage– it must be bedtime for the human.

Sweet dreams!