Heather & Chopper's Wonderful World of ... » dexter

Paisley and her ball

Heather — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:10:32 +0000

We introduced Paisley to her exercise ball tonight, and she took to it immediately. She’s in a small ball for now, since she’s tiny, but she’ll need a regular sized ball before too long.

Dexter loves his ball, and once she gets the hang of things, we’ll probably have some simultaneous balling going on in the apartment. Hee.

Yay, baby hedgehog

Heather — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:19:47 +0000

Chopper and I are going to adopt a new baby hedgehog in the next several weeks and I’m tickled to be able to share the first photo of her. She’s about three weeks old, and her eyes have just opened. No name yet, although I’m partial to Paisley. We’ll need to meet her and make sure that she’s cool with that.

The red stuff on her back is nail polish, used to tell her apart from her littermates (another girl and a boy). She can come live with us once she’s weaned and on her own, about six weeks old.

Dexter thus far has no opinion on the matter. The two of them will live in separate cages and have minimal contact (other than being in the same room).

Dexter has been remodeling again

Heather — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:24:38 +0000

Dexter has always been a builder. Last night, he moved the pigloo across his cage and deposited it squarely on top of the ramp entrance from the top level of his cage. You can see the blankets that he’s dragged along with him down the ramp. I’m leaving it alone as I think it may be hilarious to see what he does when he goes back upstairs and finds himself back in the pigloo.

Dexter vs. the Altoid

Heather — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:52:41 +0000

He’s now a minty fresh hedgehog after a close inspection (read: violent chomping and annointing) with a crème de menthe Altoid. Hee.

Dexter is ready for his close-up

Heather — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:00:02 +0000

To our considerable surprise, Dexter allowed us to take some photos last night. He’s not normally a very photogenic hedgehog — not because he isn’t terribly handsome, which he certainly is — but because he is both skittish and extremely fast. I’ve got a lot of very blurry and out of frame photos of him. So, when he started hamming it up for the camera last night, we had to take advantage.

I’m in the Daily Mail

Heather — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:52:24 +0000

So I’m now an internationally published photographer … and I didn’t even know it. The Daily Mail used one of my photos in an article on the growing popularity of hedgehogs as pets in the U.K. Imagine my face when one of my coworkers forwarded me a link and I recognized the top photo. I don’t think surprised adequately covers it.

The hedgehog in question is Knarla Pog’s baby brother from a later litter that her parents Scratches and Sweetie had. The photo dates back to January 13, 2001, and it pops up everywhere. I’ve seen it probably two dozen times or more in “cute animal” emails that various people have sent on to me. “Oh look, Heather, a hedgehog!” Yeah, I know. I took the photo. It’s my hand holding the little guy and you can even see my wedding ring on my finger. Chopper uses each instance as an occasion to remind me of the merits of watermarking or meta-tagging my photos, which I have yet to do.

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I emailed the newspaper and asked them, very nicely, if it would be possible to credit me for the photo. I hope to hear something back from them. I don’t mind at all that they used it — as a matter of fact, I’m very flattered — but it would be nice to have some acknowledgment.

What does bug me is that it’s not the best photo I took of him from that day. This one is.

Yep, him again

Heather — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:23:58 +0000

Poor Dexter. Two more days.

It’s almost the end of the month

Heather — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:36:54 +0000

Poor Dexter. It’s his turn as photo subject again. Nikon D70, ISO 400, f4.5, 1/125, 70mm, with flash.

Playing catch up

Heather — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:00:20 +0000

Six photos for seven days. I did in fact take photos on February 20 — those would be the eclipse photos, which warranted their own album. The EXIF information for these can be seen in the Detail view of each photo from the gallery, if you’re interested.

Starting at the top left: The man made from miniature clay pots, affectionately known as “Pot Man Junior” (my mother has the full sized one); our new team mascot at work; the nearly full moon from the parking lot at work; Dexter eating Worm Man’s Worm Farm roasted waxworms out of the jar (mmm); the black vulture Mom gave me for Christmas; and a hedgehog and dragon figurine from my sister-in-law Jan and niece Athene.

Catching up

Heather — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:57:22 +0000

I didn’t post last night but I did in fact take a photo. Not a good one, but I was playing with how the 50mm lens would do inside without a flash. Nikon D70, ISO 400, f1.8, 1/45, 50mm. This is a plant stake that Chopper dubbed “the bluebird of happiness.”

Tonight, Dexter (in Chopper’s hands) makes another appearance as my backup photography subject. Nikon D70, ISO 400, f1.8, 1/250, 50mm., with flash.