June 23, ,2023 I happened to come across a post on fb ” I need to rehome 2 hedgehogs”
I couldn’t respond quick enough.
I had wanted a hedgehog for years!!
Two were available and near me. I had to ask!

The owner replied. Sadly, they were just not in my budget at that time.

On July 6, I received another message from the owner of these two hedgies. Saying she was still rehoming them. She just wanted them to go to a good home. Unbelievably at no charge with everything included except food! What?!?!?

Omg! Yes I want them i immediately replied.
I had A LOT to learn. I just had a few short days to do so. I never really thought I would own a hedgehog so I never bothered to learn about these complex, mysterious, beautiful little creatures.

There were two beautiful albino girls. A mother and a daughter. I forget what their original names were they started with an N.
Their new names were Pixie and Belle.
Like Tinkerbell.

They were so grumpy.curlung into a ball and hissing and huffing. I loved them!💖💖💖
I couldn’t hold them without gloves at first. It took about 2 weeks to get use to those spines. My granddaughter loved them as well.

It took eight months for Belle to bond with me and Pixie, man, i never that would happen but 10 months in she finally caved. I pet her nose one night the next she nudged my finger like you need to do that again. I did, she became my bff. Pixie was full of antics, smiles and dramatics
Belle was my sweet Belle. She loved to snuggle. BUT I couldn’t touch her while we were snuggling She yelled at me all the time. Her favorite spot, right inside the top of my shirt, preferably tucked in my bra. Lol

One of them would “sing” on occasion at night. I didn’t know who it was then but after getting to know my girls, it was my sweet Belle. Im not sure what her “singing” was actually all about in those days. Not all hedgehogs are vocal though. At one time or another Belle has vmlet me hear the variety of her vocals. She made a mating call. Yep, I got a baby boy hedgie a month after I got the girls. Not to mate them but just because I quickly became obsessed! Even to get another baby girl 10 months later because she was born on my daughters birthday.
Anyways, she never made the mating call for my boy, it was always when I put her momma Pixie back in the enclosure and she wasn’t with us. I think maybe because I was holding my boy beforehand? She also made it for Poppy Waffle my baby girl a few times! Lol go figure!
She also dreamed out loud, another great story. The first time she was dreaming while I was holding her, I thought she was crying in pain, I was so devastated for my girl. It was s Saturday no money really at the time to take her to an emergency vet. I was bawling my eyes out. Then to make sure she was okay, I picked her up and she screamed like there was no tomorrow!! I cried harder. So the funny part is I learned later that she was just dreaming. So when I picked her up I scared the crap out of her. She just doesn’t realize what she did to me though! 😭😆😭😂

They say hedgehogs are solitary animals. Belle needed Pixie and Pixie needed Belle. They had to be separated for a short period of time once because Belle had a wound. Pixie wouldn’t play or hardly eat. Trust me Pixie was a foodie so she loved to eat! I did allow Pixie to see belle one night. Belle huffed so loudly, Pixie walked away I think it looked as if she would cry.my heart was broke for my Pixie.
I did put them back together not long after they were good.
All of my hedgehogs got along wonderfully when they’ were together. Supervised when my boy was around the girls. That is until my baby girl got sick, I think Belle knew. I could no longer allow Belle to be around her as she would try to hurt her.

Belle got a couple of wounds in the beginning, then with the time she was dreaming I believed she would be the first hog I would lose.
Pixie started off a bigger girl. She steadily started losing weight. I noticed I worried cuz she still ate like the foodie she was. Hedgies are prone to cancer. This was in the back of my mind.
Then when my girl lost about 25-30g in about a month I really noticed was s little scared even. I’m not fixing cancer. They only have a 4-6 yr life span anyway. (I didn’t see it being anything else because she ate, drank played. Anyways, I had to put my Pixie girl, Belles momma down August 14, last year. She was about 5.
Plot twist- up until about September of last year I thought Belle was the momma! I went back to messenger to see if the original owner had any photos of them. Then I realized she sent me a few. I got the girls mixed up in the beginning and I even told my granddaughter something to the effect like I could have gotten them confused. Yep I did!

So in a way a bit of a relief in two ways one to know Pixie lived longer than I actually thought and Belle had potential to live longer than what I thought she would.

I said earlier my girls needed each other
A hedgehogs greatest sense is their smell. Poppy had a little throne as she was queen Poppy Waffle. The girls use to have one bit they didn’t use it so I just let pippy have both
One night one of the thrones happen to be on my bed. Belle flipped it every which way. I think she caught Pixies scent though it had been washed. She finally relaxed with it. My heart was heavy for my girl. She couldn’t find her momma. This was about two months after Pixie had been gone. They grieve as well.

My baby girl continued to decline through the rest of last year. January 7, of this year I had her humanely euthanized. She had to endure life far more than she enjoyed it.

In December Belle turned 4. In February of this year I started to become concerned she had something going on with her head. She started choked on food twice, got real messy about eating, and while she already cried with brighter light she seemed to be more sensitive..
I took her to the vet. They did X-rays and usually they sedated hogs to do so. Not mine except for the head as they’re well socialized.
So she didn’t get the X-ray of her head. I was just…

Then those symptoms seemed to resolve themselves. I actually forgot about it.
March 9, she went to the vet with my boy. She went a week prior. The office wanted a urine sample . I was unable to get it..my bpy had surgery and I left her there while he was there so they could get the urine.

They got her urine at the vets. They said she had a UTI. So he had antibiotics. It was a pretty stressful day for my semester Belle or Belley as I usually called her. I gave her the med. Next time I got her out to snuggle. I realized she wasn’t “yelling” at me like normal. I set her down and let her walk. She fell right over. My girl was struggling to walk. I thought maybe she was dehydrated from such a long day. Nope not the case after I syringed her water. It looked as if she had a stroke.

I put her back in her enclosure to see if she would eat something so she would be ok. I went to bed. I woke up just a couple hours later between 4:35-4:40am. My sweet girl crawled just out of her hide. She was still there but barely.
I picked her up to snuggle with her once again after we went and check on my boy since he just had surgery.

We laid down. Within a minute or two my Belley started gasping loudly for air. She couldn’t breathe and she passed. Belley was my heart.
In about one hour from now it would be one month that she will have been gone. I miss her everyday.
The day she passed a song came on my playlist that I typically don’t hear. It was a song I thought of when she would make the mating call for Pixie girl. Like checking on her, where you been? After she came back to the cage. I will spare you what song it is though.
Lol
I believe that tells me my girls are all together again!

I got a new hedgie, a baby boy, at the end of the same week
My other boy has kept my attention being ill. I thought I would have to put him down just two days ago. He’s a warrior!
In all of that though Im missing my sweet Belle everyday. She turned out to be the healthiest one of them. Her passing was so unexpected. There will never be another her!
This new one though, same attitude, he will snuggle but nope don’t touch him! Lol
I said from the beginning my girls sent him to me.
Im sure there are some great wheels over the rainbow bridge my three girls are on right now. With my two bougie girls Pixie and Belle eating their dried worms, Belle anointing to her pinkie instead of eating and Poppy Waffle swallowing her pinkies and eating her worms!

You girls helped give me my life back and I’m forever grateful. I hope I can make a difference in the hedgehog community as a way to give back.💖