jr face

Thursday night, I took Jr out to let him run around the apartment when we noticed that his hind legs had suddenly stopped working. We took him to the vet and discovered that he had Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome, which is a neurological disease that paralyses the the hedgehog's hind legs and works its way up through the body. The vet did everything he could, but there is no cure for WHS and Jr died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday night and was in no pain.

I've been having trouble concentrating since this happened, so here is a personal essay I wrote for Morkan's Horse about the day I got Jr:

"Californians drive to Nevada to buy hedgehogs and ferrets so often the Vegas pet shop gave me a pre-printed map highlighting a path that would take us around the border check on our way home. The dusty road it led us along seemed pointless. We passed perhaps two houses and a lonely, implausible, Post Office. Mike was already snoring in the backseat, and Nick was driving, so I opened the cardboard box to take a peek at my new spiky friend. He’d burrowed under a layer of shredded newspaper and was curled in a tiny ball of pointy anger.

I closed the lid and reaffixed the tape. I placed my hand level to the bottom of the windowsill and crossed it over the box to make sure it was out of sight. It was, after all, contraband—even if it was just an apple-sized creature."

You can read the rest of the essay here.


R.I.P my grumpy little guy.




much love,
hedgie