by Katie Daniels

Created on: March 05, 2009

"What did your boyfriend get you for your birthday?" was the question everyone had for me in the Fall of 2006. My answer: A Hedgehog! Yes, we adopted a hedgehog, and she was the cutest little hedgehog you ever did see.

I began researching hedgehogs when I was in college living with four other girls. We wanted a house pet, but unfortunately one of my house-mates was allergic to anything with fur. My friend Ben told me he had owned a hedgehog when he was younger, and besides being the best pet he's ever owned, it was hypo-allergenic! I looked on the internet at hedgehog sites, and apparently they are a popular pet (who knew?) because most of the websites I looked at had a waiting list to adopt. Since I am not one to wait for anything, I continued my search until I found a woman who was selling hedgehogs near my school, with no waiting list!

It was a exciting, scary day when we adopted Izzy Bella. Exciting, of course, because I wanted a new pet, and after looking at an endless supply of baby hedgehog pictures, I wanted a new hedgehog. But also scary, because we were driving to a random lady's house, whom I've only talked to online, in the middle of nowhere.

We went into her house anyway...she seemed nice enough. Then she led us into her basement. I've been in my share of scary basements, living in New York and owning numerous "designer" bags, but I must say, this was much different. It was more...weird. It was like going down into an underground pet store. I kind of felt like I was buying organs on the black market. There were cages everywhere, filled with everything from turtles, to hairless hamsters, to chinchillas!

My boyfriend and I got to the hedgehog bin, and there was a big momma hedgehog, and two little babies. The mother was a lot larger than I thought she would be, and I thought maybe I shouldn't have something so large in a small dorm room. The woman lifted up one of the babies, and put it in my hand. It curled up into a little spikey ball, and hissed and hissed. At this point I thought maybe this was a bad idea. It was pretty much stabbing me, and it clearly was not having any fun. Then the owner put Izzy Bella into my boyfriend's hands and she was relaxed, and crawling around all over the place. I put the baby I was holding back, and then held Izzy. Immediately, she pooped on me. I took this as a good sign, that she was comfortable enough with me to use me as her toilet. Haha.

She did not curl up in a ball, she did not hiss at me, she just explored me

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