I had an outreach with the zoo that had me leaving the house quite early this morning. I arrived at the college where the event was to be held, and settled in. I always enjoy working with the other docents, it's fun to chat with them during slow times, and it's nice to have someone reach over with a paper towel and clean mess off your leg, or gently say, "actually, that animal is from Africa, not Europe." Hey, no one's perfect!
The day wore on, we had an ongoing flow of people coming by, enough to keep it interesting without getting overwhelming. I decided it would be fun to hold the hedgehog-harmless enough, right? It's just a hedgehog. So I don the heavy gloves, and scoop up Harley. It's fun to show people how they roll up in prickle balls, and become impenetrable. Harley would also peek his cute little face out between my fingers like he was shy.
I'd had him for a while, and Harley was resting in my lap. Nothing big going on, I was just relaxing, listening to everyone talk. All the sudden, Harley latches on to my wrist, and won't let go! Let me tell you, hedgehogs have 36 very sharp teeth, and bites HURT!
When a hedgehog feels threatened, they will "pop" up in the air to give a predator of mouthful of prickles. Harley kept popping with his teeth firmly embedded in my wrist. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes. The worst thing is that there were 4 other volunteers there, (and one with more experience than me), and no-one knew how to detach this thing from my arm.
I thought maybe if I put him back in the carrier, he'd let go. But someone had come by and put 4 bbq plates on the carrier, so that was out. The only thing I could think of was to rush him over to the water fountain, and douse him in it. A guest followed me over and hit the button for me. (very hard to do when your hands are tied up with hedgehogs. Hips don't work well.)
Harley released the second that cold water hit him. Relief! My wrist had multiple teeth marks where he had bitten me, in an area about the size of a quarter. It hurt so much, but no blood drawn. After putting Harley in jail, (his carrier), I sat down, and said, "There goes having a hedgehog for a pet! One volunteer later said she would have dropped him. I guarantee, if I had tried to drop Harley, he would have been hanging from my wrist by his teeth.
When I told my boss about the bite, I told him nothing unusual had happened, he was resting one minute, and bit me the next. Mr. H said, "Welcome to hedgehogs." Nope, not having one as a pet. EVER. I'll stick with ferrets, and guinea pigs. They are more my style.
After the zoo, ( I got 6 hours today!) I met up with my dh for a fun evening out. Okay, well it was nothing glamorous, he'd been driving, and I'd been holding animals for the zoo, but we had fun together. We ran a couple of errands, and grabbed a bite to eat.
Then we went home, and had a nice time talking about everything on the way. We got home, and the house was so hot. Not what we wanted after a long hot day at work. Time to clean the a/c unit. Actually, cleaning the coils isn't too much work, it's putting it back together that's the hassle. I think it took longer than cleaning the whole thing.
Our last chore for the day, and by now it was about 8:30pm. We needed to repair our pool gate. Sometime back, a dog had broken through the lattice, and broke a big hole in it. Eventually, the bottom of the gate had broken off completely. Not only was this a hazard for neighborhood children, it wouldn't confine the dog either. So after a bit of trimming and nailing, we have a strong new gate. Just in time for my niece's visit next week with her little ones. I'm so excited! Plus, we have a fenced in area to let the dogs run. Thank you honey!
By this point, dh and I were hot, tired, sweaty, and covered in bug bites. I told him we should strip down and jump in the pool. He started in the house for towels, and I said, no, just get in the pool. What a refreshing treat after so much work, and such a long day. Of course the kids thought we were crazy, ( or something), but who cares. Nothing beats relaxing in your pool after a day of hard work.
At this point, after all the hard work we've put into our pool, I think it must be full of Holy water, as we have sure cleaned the h*ll out of it~ Have a great evening!
Chela
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