Welcome home, Paisley

Chopper and I made a day trip to Raleigh to pick up wee Paisley, now six weeks old, and bring her home.  It made for a long day, but it was totally worth it.  Paisley is a wonderful little hedgehog: curious, bright-eyed, active, and with a good appetite.

Her mom is Winnie, who is a sweet girl, too.

We didn’t get to meet her brother, but her sister Penelope was being picked up yesterday, too, so we spent a little time with her.

Paisley even went to sleep on my hand when we were getting ready to leave.

She slept the whole way back to Charleston, as best we could tell, and thankfully, she doesn’t seem to have any problems with car travel.  (We have known hedgehogs who got carsick from time to time.)

Once we got home, we spent a little time letting her sniff and explore us on the sofa.

She was quite curious about her cage, which we’ve set up with a wheel, some toys, and a pile of blankets in the corner for her to sleep in.  She immediately took to the wheel, although she seemed to be as interested in gnawing thoughtfully on the crossbars as running on it as first.

Unquestionably, the funniest part of the evening was when she encountered the little rubber duck that my mom gave Knarla some years back — I tossed it into the cage with a couple of other toys when I put everything together.  Paisley sniffed it within an inch of its ducky life and then, for some reason known only to her, decided that it might be tasty.

Dexter hasn’t met his new little sister yet, although I’m sure they’re aware of one another as their cages are in the same room.  (They will always live separately.)  They’ve got a joint vet appointment on Monday for a well-pet checkup.

I’ve uploaded the best of the Paisley photos to Flickr for your enjoyment.  More to come, of course.