Numo: Hedgehog blog

March 2005

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Reunited!
I'm back from a super trip to Memphis and New Orleans. Numo is alive and well. He's made it up to the second floor of his cage. [sigh of relief] And he's been making a mess, which I take as a good sign that he's getting used to his cage.

Sandra's rendition of Numo. She did a great job petsitting. Asked good questions when we met to set up the sitting. Let Numo out to run around and let me know how much Numo was eating. All good.

Numo's doing his favorite thing - pushing around that toilet paper tube. Like cats who love the little plastic ring from milk jugs, gotta love cheap pet toys. I can appreciate cheap thrills myself.

posted on 10:06 PM

Monday, March 28, 2005

Pang, Pang, Pang
Had a fantastic ride down to New Orleans with Larisa, including a super stop in Memphis to visit Aaron and Rebecca. This is my first trip away from Numo and I've been counting the pangs of I-wonder-how-Numo is. I'm at 10 pangs over 2 days. Not bad. Sandra, who's pet sitting, asked me how much contact I wanted from her. Up to now, petless, I worked on a no news is good news policy. So, no news is good news, and I know Sandra would leave bad news if there were any.

Back to enjoying The Big Easy.

posted on 9:52 AM

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Home Sweet Home
A shot of Numo's cage. 28" x 28" x 14" Hedgehogs need a minimum of two square feet. The circle shows that he's napping in the tube and shows the scale of hedgehog in relation to his environment. He's not digging going up to the second level. His wheel is up there, and he needs to run. Thankfully, I take him out every day and he runs around in his playpen. If he can't handle that tight top turn, half of my cage will be rearranged to fit a new layout for Numo's cage. Thankfully, last night I did think of a Plan B. No small feat in a 450 square foot apartment.

Sandra will be checking in on Numo the next few days. I'll be back Tuesday. Onto non-hedgehog adventures for a few days.

posted on 8:02 AM

Friday, March 25, 2005

Progress
Lots of time with Numo today and he met two new folks: Sandra, friend and pet sitter, and Pat, who locked himself out of his apartment and brought Thai food over. Three boxes arrived from Petco a travel carrier, ferret tubes, a giant Kritter Krawler,
flea and tick powder (preventative) and cage disinfectant. With all that and a trip to the grocery for The World's Best Cat Litter, Numo's supplies are covered. Boy, howdy, the litter is the biggest expense in all of this (barring vet bills), but it sure is some magical cat litter.

Loads to share, but I'm leaving for Memphis then New Orleans in 10 hours and counting. And so much to do...

posted on 10:29 PM

Hello, Hello!
Welcome Gapers Block readers! Cinnamon is right, as far as I can tell, this is the first and only blog about an actual hedgehog. Hope you enjoy reading about my new adventure with Numo. Not surprisingly, he's sleeping. In an hour, I'll rouse him to meet Sandra, friend and professional pet sitter, of Right at Home In-home Petsitting Service. I am dee-lighted that I could hire Sandra for my Easter vacation and that she has previous hedgehog experience! What luck.

And my promise to you on this blog - I'll never write posts in first person as if Numo can type/speak.

posted on 2:27 PM

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Tuckered Out
Numo completely wore himself out with the toilet paper tube. Kind scary to see him sleeping with his head in the tube and his front paws splayed out. I thought, "My hedgehog broke himself." Fortunately, no.

posted on 10:18 PM

Squirrely Hedgehog
I thought Numo was so inert because he was unaccostumed to his new home. Oh, no! He just needed room to boogie. Veronica had told me that while it'd take awhile for him to get comfortable and snuggly with me, he loves tooling around and needed to come to the next IHOG, hedgehog olympics. (We're in intense training.)

I set up a playpen for him:

Here's a closeup:

and another:

And a profile:

His quills make a mohawk when he's weary:

13 year old kid : Playstation :: Hedgehog : Toliet Paper Tube:

It's pretty damn hilarious.

I AM HEDGEHOG, HEAR ME ROAR!

I even sat in the playpen and Numo didn't really care. Lesson #2: Tuck your pants in your socks unless you want a burrowing animal running up your pantleg.*

*Lesson #1: Canned crickets are stinky.

posted on 4:56 PM

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Numo Time
I just put Numo back in his cage. A couple hours chilling. Numo doesn't have an opinion on America's Next Top Model. (I'm delighted Brandy was kicked off - her 'tude was too bad for such a good opportunity.) Tonight he was a bit more social than Tuesday night, where he just slept and huffed. Tonight he explored a bit. It was so funny when he was awake between a fleece blanket and his hide-y hat and poked his head out. I looked at him and back in he went!

Here's a few pics of what chillout time looks like:

My view of Numo on my lap. Curled up and huffy. On a fleece blanket. He's more comfortable under his hide-y hat, but sometime I leave him out in the open so I can watch his quill relax and his breathing, to learn to read him.

One of his feet pokin' out. His head is on the right side. Hee hee. He was zonked out sleeping. And he does sometimes twitch in his sleep.

Close up on Numo's quills. This is "on guard" mode. Hedgehogs have muscles that when they constrict sort of draw them closed like a drawstring bag, letting them curl up in a ball. When that happens, the quills criss cross making them a very formidable opponent. When they are relaxed, the quills lay down flat.

Oh, and here you can see his coloring. Numo is snowflake color, meaning mostly white with some quills banded with brown. Maybe 70% of his quills are all white, making Numo fairly white overall.

posted on 11:58 PM

Lousy pic, but here's Numo's nose poking out as he sleeps halfway into his PVC elbow pipe. The tip is black and his face is light brown.

posted on 7:07 PM

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

On My Person
Work was severly lacking December, January, February. Today was the first day in months I have just did errands. On the list was lots of pet supply procurement. My the time I plopped down back home, I had:
o 200 black cable ties (to put together Numo's cage)
o 1 4" diameter PVC elbow joint (hiding place for Numo)
o 1 container hedgehog food (Numo food)
o 2 packages cat food (Numo food)
o 1 can freeze dried mealie worms (Numo treats)
o 1 can freeze dried crickets (Numo treats)
o 1 Cyber-shot® DSC-P200 Digital Camera (Brandy treat & replacing an well-worn DSC-P5. And marked down!)
o 1 plush Peep "backpack clip" (toy for Numo)
o 1 box black hair dye (Brandy maintenance)
o 2 small cat litter pans (probably too tall for Numo)
o 1 electric heating pad (pet hedgehogs don't like to be cold)
o 1 electronic timer (")
o 1 $2 room thermometer (")
o 2 boxes wire grid storage unit kits (Numo's cage)
o 2 lil' tennis ball toys (toy for Numo)
o 10 washcloths (on sale, always useful)
o 1 roll ribbed shelf liner (in case I need to line something for Numo so he can get a grip)

+ a business card for a Northside vet that cares for hedgehogs

Productive day, though I gotta say I'll be ordering several pet items online to get what I want and need.

Now I'll get coffee and then I get to start building Numo's new home! I'm using the C&C (Cubes & Coroplast) Method for his cage. Brilliant idea, if you ask me.

posted on 4:48 PM

Huffy VonHuff Huff
Last night Numo got super huffy with me when I tried to take him out for some Brandy/Numo time. I let him be since he had a long day at the expo. Tonight he huffed and puffed, but I still got him out. Hung out on my lap for 2.5 hours! Much huffing, some exploring, much sleeping. But I did get to see more of his lovely lil face.

And it's really neat learning to read Numo's quill and the levels of on guard to relaxed. Granted, I'm seeing more of the former than the latter.

I think every hedgehog should be named Mr/Ms Noselicker. Their only really strong sense is smell. And when Numo was sniffing he was constantly licking his schnoz. Like he's thinking over and over, "Let me get this smell straight. Let me lick my nose to make sure my sniffer is ready. Okay, wait..."

Tomorrow I get the rest of the stuff to build his cage, and hit da pet store. Such a new adventure.

posted on 12:02 PM

Monday, March 21, 2005

Meet Numo!
I've never mentioned this on this site, because it was all Top Secret -
I love pets. I wanted a pet. Considering everything, the pet for me was a hedgehog. Yes, a hedgehog. Yes, they do have pet hedgehogs. Then I debated for a full year about whether to get one. Then some Kismet hit me in the face Friday morning. More Kismet later, I met my hedgehog yesterday at the PetChicago show at Arlington Racetrack.

There's pages and pages of story behind this, but it's Monday and I've got to get client work done. So, here's Numo:

He's an African pygmy hedgehog, snowflake in color. He's 3 months old. Veronica Moyle of Hedge Hog'N Around tells me he'll need some patience. I've got patience. As you can see, after his first night, he's sleeping for the day, and wants nothing to do with the camera.

Hedgehogs are diurnal, meaning they wake at dawn and dusk. At dawn he was tooling around in his wheel. I'm not used to this yet, and I groggily woke up and looked into his cage. He was looking back at me. Darn cute face. I can vouche for it without photographic proof yet.

Much more to come after I get my worky work done.

NOTE: I wanted and got a hedgehog, I do not want hedgehog stuff. Really, I mean it. When you see hedgehog stuff, think of me and Numo, but please do not buy it.

posted on 11:01 AM

2007: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
2006: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2005: 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

NOTE: I wanted and got a hedgehog, I do not want hedgehog stuff. Really, I mean it. When you see hedgehog stuff, think of me and Numo, but please do not buy it for me/us.