Welcome Home, Harley!

Harley has been with us for six days now, and we don’t really see much of him.

When we go to bed, this is what we see, when we wake up… this is what we see.   A spikey little ball curled up behind his snuggle buddy (microwavable for warmth) inside his igloo.

If it weren’t for the lack of food and abundance fresh poop I see in the morning, I’d never know he ever woke up at all!

They say that this is normal, because he is so young (they being the fantastic guys and gals over at the Chins & Quills forum), and apparently hedgies his age will sleep up to 20 hours a day!

I have woken him up to play with him a few times though, and much the same as I would if someone picked up my covers and tried to grab me out of my bed… he huffs up, hisses and sticks his quills up at me.   Once I get a hold of him and pick him up though, he’s fine.  The quills don’t hurt as much as people let on, he can still be picked up easily even in his most grumpy of mood.

Here are some photos I got of him while he was out for one of our cuddle sessions the other day.

He loves his hedgie bag and he fell asleep in it on my lap Tuesday night while I was watching a movie and rubbing his back.  He even rolled over onto his side so I could rub his belly, it was so cute!

The other day I took him out to play with him on the sofa, and Salem was absolutely fascinated. He never swiped at him or did anything, he just sat there staring. They had a few staring contests and otherwise didn’t seem bothered by each other at all. Spencer, my other cat, looked at him for about a minute and then went off to do something more interesting. Bailey, my dog, acts like a total spazzo whenever Harley is around. He has no idea what to do with himself and ends up in some weird mixture of hyper, jealous, curious and pissed off all at once which comes out in the most bizarre whine sound I’ve ever heard him make.

So, all in all, having Harley is an interesting experience so far. Which is only going to get more interesting as sometime over the next few days I have to give him his first bath! I get the feeling I’ll see a lot of pointy quills that day!