Goodbye Dashurie

Photo courtesy of Rachel

It is with a very heavy heart that I say goodbye to Dashurie,

Ashinator's beautiful pricklepig hedgehog.

She hadn't been eating well and had become a little anti-social, so we assumed that she was pouting about her new temporary roommates, Ashinator's aunt's bird and fish.

The minute Ash came home with "other" pets, Dash began pouting.

When I took her up to the lodge for HCR, she was one happy little hedgehog and spent the weekend re-arranging her room at the lodge.

She came out to poop on Momma P's shorts play with Momma P, Rachel and myself and was just a happy little critter.

Dashurie, enjoy your new life across the Rainbow Bridge and know that for the short time you were with our family, we loved you.

Dashurie's Road Trip

With Ashinator in Arizona visiting her daddy Dashurie's been sulking around.  She definitely missed her mommy, so I decided that I'd take her up the hill with me today.  Unbelievably, Mom and Bill hadn't met Dashurie in real life.  When Ashinator got Dash, it was too cold up at the lodge to take her up there.  But now that it's a million degrees down here, it's only a half a million degrees up the hill and thus warm enough for Dash to take a road trip.

I put her in her new hobo sling carrier from CSN Stores, which she loves.  I was pleasantly surprised when the bag came, because I was worried about the vents not being able to provide enough air flow.  The pictures on the site don't show the vents, but when I saw the bag, I noticed that there are two fairly large vents in each side panel of the bag.  The bag also came with a removable fleece bottom, which I took a picture of, but little Miss Dashurie had - ahem - soiled the fleece.

The bag may be a bit big for her, since it is really a dog carrier, but she's not complaining.  She's got room to move around and arrange things the way she likes (she's very particular) and play with her toys.

Of course, we had to put her up on a saddle and get pics, but she's a quick little critter an only one of them turned out...

She got to spend her day in Scooter's house (Scooter is the lodge turtle who is currently living with Nebalee) and had a grand time.  I haven't seen her so active in a long time.  She spent a good half an hour exploring her new digs and arranging her "blanket" just so before she settled down.  When I saw her try to eat the gravel I ran to get her some cat food instead.  She was just beside herself when she got to eat "good" cat food - Science Diet - instead of whatever is on sale that we buy.

She looks kind of scary in this picture, but she was gobbling up the Science Diet so fast I couldn't get a good picture.

True Story Tuesday - Cuddling with a Sand Burr

Head on over to Once Upon A Miracle for more great TSTs!

If you've followed for more than a few posts, you know that the Zoo in the GunDiva/RockCrawlinChef household includes the Ashinator's pet hedgehog, Dashurie.  Dash really is a cuddlebug and a most excellent pet.

About a month or so ago, I was cuddling with Dashurie.  She'd snuggled in between the girls and was half-asleep.  We were just hanging out in the Ashinator's room; me and my grand-hedgehog (that better be the only grandanything in my life for a long time).

It was cold out, which always makes my nose run, despite the fact that she keeps her bedroom at approximately 100 degrees.  I should mention that Dash is easily startled.  I guess that's a trait of hedgehogs.  If something startles them, they curl up into a ball and the quills stand up.  It's actually kind of cute.

This isn't Dash, I've not managed to get a picture of her balled up.  This hedgie is courtesy of Blogger images.

I felt my nose running and sniffed.  Which startled Dash.  And caused her to ball up.  Right between the girls.  It felt a lot like having a million of these...

...sand burrs between the girls.  Now, keep in mind, it was still cold out, so I had multiple layers on (despite the heat in Ash's room), but those multiple layers did not stop those sharp little quills.  I was actually thankful that the girls are mine and not fake.  'Cause the fake ones would have leaked out of all of the millions of puncture wounds courtesy of Dashurie.

It took all of my self control not to drop her.  God knows what kind of damage would have been done by the weight of a dangling hedgehog.  Once I managed to disentangle myself from her, I put her back in her cage. 

Cuddle time was O-V-E-R.

Two nights later, as I was getting into bed, my chest was itchy.  So I scratched it.  And managed to scratch off a whole bunch of little bitty scabs from all of the puncture wounds.

Really, if making love in hay is anywhere near as painful as cuddling with a scared hedgehog, I'll take a pass!

(Mini Rant:  Where do those romance writers come up with that anyway?  Have they ever handled hay?)

K. Told Me So (A Zoo Update)

I have to start with an apology to K. Erickson over at Preachers and Horse Thieves (even if he did get to spend the day blowing shit up without me, never mind that I'm in Colorado and he's in Texas).  When I first posted the pictures of the brand new kittens, he told me that the white lab rat-looking ones would probably turn out cute.  To say I was skeptical would be an understatement.

Guess what?

No Name, Paleface, Little Grey Kitten

He's right.  They're kinda cute. 

So, K., I apologize.

They're now three weeks old and all look to be long-hairs.  Ashee-butt is set on keeping Little Grey Kitten and the other two are spoken for, so the kinda cute lab rat-ish kittens have good homes in five weeks.

Dashurie took her first bath today.  We were told just to fill a sink with baby shampoo and warm water and turn 'er loose.  So we did.  It became quickly apparent that the bathroom sink was too small for her, so for her rinse cycle, she got moved to the tub where she did lap after lap.

Who would have thought a hedgehog would turn out to be such a great pet?  In fact, Dashurie's part of this week's True Story Tuesday.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.