Lost, and found

Hedgehog goes missing...and is found again. Two posts, brought together, about the travails of raising a peripatetic hedgehog.
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I truly am a bad parent. The other week, we were given two miniature hedgehogs to raise - now, due to laziness and a careless oversight on my part, we have none.

We sent the first hedgehog back to its owner because we tired of having to clean its cage. Or rather, my boyfriend tired of it. I did not go near the thing, as its spikes are too sharp.

I suspected we were forgiven for having second thoughts. The owner, an animal-mad kathoey who lives downstairs, took Hedgehog 1 back gracefully.

As for the second...Hmmm. When I left for work last night, it was still in its plastic container with the flip-top lid, where the boyfriend had placed it only hours before.

Previously, Hedgehog 2 lived in a cage, which is the best place to keep such things. But it kept fouling its little bed, which meant Maiyuu had to clean it every other day. It, too, was becoming a nuisance...but then fate, or rather a hedgehog's natural inclination to climb, intervened.

I left the flip-top lid open, so the thing could breathe. I also happened to leave open the nearby window of our condo. We live nine floors up.

When boyfriend Maiyuu returned that night, Hedgehog 2 was nowhere to be found. Apparently he climbed out of his container (don't ask me how - it has sheer plastic sides) and went for a little walk.

The optimist in boyfriend Maiyuu believes he went for an evening stroll inside the condo, and is probably still hiding somewhere in the room. 'He'll be getting hungry now,' Maiyuu said today, while probing various nooks and crannies. The search turned up nothing.

The realist in us both believes he went for a walk along the window sill and just - fell out. Yet we can see no signs of prickly balls lying in the carpark below. The security guard says he has seen no dazed or shellshocked hedgehogs tottering about down there.

Hedgehogs curl into a ball when they encounter anything new or unexpected. It's possible that he hit the ground with such force that he bounced over the neighbour's fence. If so, I hope he enjoys his freedom. It's leafy and shady down there, so he should enjoy it, assuming he can still get around.

However, I doubt it. I also doubt that he flew out of his little home, as hedgehogs do not have wings. So the mystery continues.

Maiyuu has not yet told his kathoey friend, the hedgehogs' owner. Actually, better make that hedgehog singular, not plural. I hope she's not too upset.
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Mr Hedgehog did not leave us after all. He must have enjoyed life too much in our cosy home, where he gets the opportunity to 'bond' with boyfriend Maiyuu, who cleans his cage.

Instead of jumping or falling out the ninth-floor window of our condo, he merely went for a little night-time stroll.

One day after he went missing, Maiyuu called out excitedly when I arrived home from work. 'The hedgehog! I found his poos!'

Sure enough, Mr Hedgehog had left a little deposit on the bedroom floor. I wasn't sure if it really was his at first, but I can't think of what else would have done it.

However, search and poke about as we might around the two rooms of our place, we could find no sign of him - until deep into the next night, when Maiyuu heard a rustling sound.

'I woke and saw him walking outside the bathroom. So I shot up to stop him going anywhere else, then put him back in his plastic container,' Maiyuu reported the next morning.

We have now learnt our lesson. The flip-top lid - the one I left open by mistake the other day, which allowed Mr Hedgehog to climb out and escape - is now wedged in place, half way between open and closed.

If we close it entirely, he will not be able to breathe. But leave it open all the way, and he'll escape again. So we keep it open just a little - while taking him out for little supervised walks now and then.

Last night I placed a piece of apple next to his deposit on the floor, but when I woke this morning I found it untouched. I have now put it in his plastic box, as a little present for having come back.