So... Yesterday I woke up took a shower, then went back into my room to play som "Tales of Symphonia." While I was playing, I heard rustling behind me, and turned to look at my Albino Female African Pigmy Hedgehog I named Zelda.
For my 13th birthday, I took my money my Grandmother and other Grandparents sent me and I adopted her, and bought her a place to stay in. Then I brought her home, calling her Link since the pet store told me they think she is a boy... After I bought a book on hedgehogs, I realized Link was actually a Zelda. So she became Zelda.
Over the years, I didn't have many "happy" memories with her exactly... Hedgehogs are non-social creatures. They don't like to be bothered, sleep all day, wander at night. They are nocturnal, you know. And they are not rodents. They are insectavors. Though you can feed them cat food and they will be sustained from it, their natural meal are insects. Especially Meal Worms or Crickets. So I would give those to her as treats, though it grossed me out to watch her eat them live...
I have many memories of her curled up in a ball to protect herself from us till she caught wiff of an insect, uncurled and chased after it like crazy. The crunching sound that came after was most.... disturbing... I'd even go to the huge compost heap in the back yard, ignore the feces smell it gave off, and collect pill worms for her to munch on...
In 8th grade, I brought her to my science class to show her off to everyone. It was one of the only times she did any traveling, and she didn't even realize she was a star that day... My soon-to-be girlfriend was in that class... I wanted her to be impressed...
Heh, when she was my girlfriend, she always liked to bother Zelda. Zelda never got used to her and was always hissing at her and curling up in a ball... Heh, oh well.
I once read that if you raise a hedgehog right, it will follow you like a puppy... Zelda never would. I would handle her, but she would hiss and curl up. I could only hold her with leather gloves. Though she liked my mother. She would curl up under my mother's hair in the nape of her neck... Some times licking the spot my mother rubbed her perfume on, then lightly bite my mother...
Watching her run was always funny... She would waddle more than run. So cute...
And did you know hedgehogs have tails? It is very small and stumpy, and they hide it under their quills most of the time, but it is there. I think that is why the pet shop thought she was a boy...
Zelda also had a bad tendency to roll around in her own dropping, and get very dirty. I'd have to get my mother to give her a bath often. She did not enjoy taking a bath...
Hedgehogs in captivity have a life span of 4-6 years. Sometimes, but rarely they live to 8 years. As an albino, Zelda has a weak immune systems. Even in captivity, albinos are only expected to live 4 years... Zelda is now 6 and hald years old... Give or take a month or two... I guess that means I took very good care of her, though part of me doesn't feel like I did...
I always felt like I neglected her, but I didn't... Hedgehogs like to be left alone. They are not supposed to be handled and played with like puppies and kittens. So I gave her her space, like she wanted. I fed her, gave her water, played with her some times, and cleaned her container out. Heh... nights when her container was cleaned out, she would wake my mother across the house making tons of noises while "rearranging her home." What it was, was that she didn't smell her self in there anymore and was trying to get her scent back on everything...
And there were many nights, when I was still awake and I heard her wake up... I would walk over to her and watch her as I talked to her. Asked her how she was, told her about me day, even asked her her opinion on things... She was my friend. I love her and care about her...
But now, she is old. Over the last year she went blind first, then she stopped eatting very often. Maybe every other night she would eat a little... A few months ago I discovered something was terribly wrong with her... She could no longer use her left side... If I turned her over in my hands she would kick them a little, but when I placed her down and she tried to walk, she'd fall over to her left side... For months now I've had to watch her pull her self around with her right paws... It's been killing me...
So while I played that game, I watched her crawl around like that to the water bottle, then to her food dish, then to her hut again... I cried so hard...
I turned the game off and had a discussion with my mother... I am not sure when, but soon I will have to put her down. I don't want to see her suffer any longer... The rest of the day, I was close to tears... The only other time I cried was when I was writing a letter to my friend Kate... I was talking about Zelda and lost it... Sorry about that, Kate...
I'm okay right now... I even watched a new anime I bought called "Saint Tail." In it, the main character has a pet hedgehog... I just smiled and felt a little sad, but I tried to be strong.
Zelda is still alive, but I already miss her... Soon I will have to bury her out back somewhere... It is going to crush my heart... I don't know how long I will be crying afterward, but I know I will be, and for a while... I really wish I had someone close to me that would hold me while I cried... It would keep me from loosing it completely...
Something that makes me smile though... There is an anime called "Angel Tales" where this very unlucky guy can never get a job and has never been on a date. Everything wrong that can happen to him, does. Suddenly he is sent 12 guardian angels that arrive at different times. They are there to make his life luckier... But each one of those angels was an animal in their previous life... And each one of them was a pet and cared for by that boy, until they died some bad way that never had anything to do with the boy... So maybe... Zelda will come back as a guardian angel to help me out?
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