Rollo's Halloween Photo Shoot!

Turns out, Rollo's a really good sport about being wearing a hat and having his picture taken! My assistant Rick, was mostly in charge of replacing our adorable model's hat, over and over and over as he wandered around knocking it off. 

But we got through it and are happy to present:

Rollo's Halloween Photo Shoot!

Rollo pretends to be camera shy

The light is better in the kitchen, so I originally set up my background on the fridge, however, we were having trouble keeping Rollo's hat on.

So we moved to the couch and right away I got this great shot of Rollo in his wizard hat!

Rollo gives us a sassy side view

And a 3/4 turn with a tilted hat - he was born to be a hedgehog fashion star

Assistant Rick (with his strange glowing hand?) goes in for the 18th hat rescue

Much better - Rollo struts his stuff, showing off his adorable white spot

Here Rollo gives us the "Grumpy hedgehog" face as he wedges himself in the couch

Rick grabs the opportunity to show us what a grumpy hedgehog in a hat looks like

Wizard Rollo casts his spell of cuteness

and again

and yet again

Ta-da! Jazz hands Rollo!

Rollo being cute!

More pictures of Rollo. 

He's too cute not to constantly photograph.

And he really doesn't seem bothered by the flash. I don't know if it's just because his eyesight is poor, or if he's just super laid back? 

Either way, he's a great little model!

Rollo as a little ball of cuteness in Rick's hand

Rollo wiggling to get out of Rick's hand after being tickled (he promptly climbed up my arm and onto my shoulder where he hid under my hair,. Probably to get away from Rick)

Rollo puts his paws together for a dainty shot. Right after this he charged my arm to go running up onto my shoulder again. He's got this idea where he thinks he needs to be under my hair if he can't get under my shirt.

Bill Bryson

The Iowa State Lecture series brought in Bill Bryson! 

Rick and I have both read his book "A Walk in the Woods", which is also one of my favorite book covers.

Especially since Bryson, in preparation for his hiking endeavor, purchases a few books on particularly gory bear attacks, then spends the vast majority of his nights on the Appalachian Trail completely convinced he's going to be brutally mauled and carried off into the woods by a bear.  

The lecture was held in Stephen's Auditorium (which is HUGE, and impressively filled for a lecturer) We think part of the draw is that Bryson is originally from Des Moines. And proved his "Iowaness" by reciting an amusing list of "You know you're an Iowan if..." Our favorites were: 

"'You add an 'R' in Wash" 

and also "If you go anywhere in the world, and meet another Iowan, you get really excited about it. And they get really excited about it."  

Apparently Rick's parents are the most "Iowan" Iowans we know.  

On the way out Rick described our fellow audience members as "A sea of bald heads" and with the exception of a small group of MFA-creative writing students we may have been the only people there under 65.  

We both really enjoyed the lecture.

Two Hedgehogs!

Chocolaterie Stam has an adorable hedgehog mold for it's dark chocolate "cream" bonbon. I brought one home to show Rollo. 

First he sniffed it

Then he looked at me like "What is that supposed to be?"

And then he walked away

I never get over how cute he is!

Chilly Walk

 Rick and I both had the morning free on Saturday, so we took a very chilly stroll to Ada Hayden to see if anything was out and about. The wind seemed to be keeping most birds down but we did spot a few sparrows and some ducks. The colors were really the highlight of our walk.

A sparrow sits in the weeds

An armada of Mallards swim around the lake at Ada Hayden

Crab Apples

More Rollo!

I made Rollo a little bag out of  a piece of fleece. He LOVES it. Whenever we get him out and he's sleepy he just crawls inside his bag and goes back to sleep. 

Rick holding baby Rollo

The light coming through Rollo's spikes has given him an "angelic" aura, Rick and I are not fooled.

Rollo makes his "a little grumpy" face (his super grumpy face is hilarious! He squishes his whole brow!)

Little ball Rollo! He's SO cute when he's all curled up like this

Rollo doesn't seem to poo anywhere but in a specific corner of his pen (he actually MOVES the litter box and poos behind it, but at least he's not an indiscriminate mess maker and we're in the right location) so Rick and I decided to let him run around the bed

Rollo burrows into our quilt! He LOVES to bully his way into things. Rick and I are letting him run with the belief that he's super tough by allowing him head butt us out of the way.

Rollo does a little "Fellowship of the Ring" reading with Rick

Rollo burrows his way under Rick's arm. 

Poo Expert

I was very concerned last night because Rollo hadn't pooped since the car ride home from Susan's. He was eating and drinking, but no poo, and I knew that wasn't normal because hedgehogs are notorious for being somewhat prolific poopers- especially as babies. It's also normal for a stressed hedgehog to poo a lot.

I got up six or seven times during the night to poke around the internet looking for answers.

I learned 2 things
- Hedgehog owners are obsessed with poo
- Hedgehog owners are an entire community of poo experts

The poo obsession starts almost instantly and I am fast becoming a poo expert.

Hedgehogs are not terribly complicated to keep, but 90% of their ailments seem to be diagnosed via examining their poo. But my baby wasn't pooping.

Then it got worse.

Forum thread led to forum thread and by 3am I was crying because we'd done his heating wrong!
(And also because I'd had like 20 cumulative minutes of sleep. I would just lie there worrying about poo.)

The problem with a heat lamp is that it's a lamp.
It's too much light and because it has to be on all night so his pen doesn't cool off, Rollo would never know when night was because it would never get dark for him and his circadian rhythm would be all off and he wouldn't know when he was supposed to be up running around etc. etc. can lead to weakened immune system etc. etc. etc.

I was now doubly distraught.
WHY had none of my hedgehog books from the public library mentioned this!?
Oh right, they're all pre-1995.

So then I started researching ceramic heating elements, and periodically dozing off on the kitchen floor next to Rollo's pen.

I turned off his lamp around 7am while it was still very dark, but enough light for me to (sort) of see buy, and sure enough, he got up and started snuffling around. He took a couple (very long) drinks of water and ate some kibbles and pushed around his crinkle ball a little (he has a little green and gold crinkle ball cat toy Susan gave him before he left), then I had to turn his lamp back on because his thermometer was dropping and good little nocturnal monster that he is, he went back in his igloo and went back to sleep.

And still no poo.

When Rick woke up I, still distraught, explained to him that we were horrible ignorant inadvertent baby hedgehog abusers, and he told me to chill out, we'd remedy the situation as soon as PETCO opened, and then made fun of me for sleeping on the kitchen floor.

We got Rollo out for a morning rumpus and he had a kibble or two and crawled around on Rick for a while and then I got to be his human mountain (which is super fun, he tickles like crazy!)
Rollo worked his way up onto my shoulder and was attempting to use me as a landing pad from which to burrow into the love-seat and then the crook of my neck felt warm and wet and I was pretty sure he'd just peed on me, but then it smelled like cat food! And I got super excited and was all
"Rick! Rick! I think he pooped! Look! Look! Did he poop on me?!"
and Rick said "Yes. All over your neck. Don't move. I'll get you a towel." He returned with a paper towel and said "Wow. He pooped a lot."
and I responded with "Don't squish it! I need to see it!"
and Rick paused and looked at me a moment like I'd lost my mind, before carefully removing all the hedgehog feces from the crook of my neck and giving me the paper towel so I could examine the poo for myself.
And I babbled about all the things I'd learned about hedgehog poo in the last six hours... something along the lines of
"Oh! This is a great poop! See how it's soft but solid and there's no green! That's perfect! Hedgehogs have green bile in their tummies and when they get stressed it turns their poop green and sometimes runny, but sometimes stress can constipate them and make their poo really hard and cause blockages. And that's really bad too. But this poo is awesome!" (see? Poo Expert)
And Rick took the paper towel from me and removed Rollo, who through this entire exchange, had been trying to work different angles from which to burrow into the love-seat via my shoulder, and said "That's awesome. Why don't you go wash your neck."

Rick may have been less excited, but he was equally relieved to see Rollo defecate all over my neck.

We also, as Rick promised we would, remedied the heat/light situation by replacing the brooder lamp bulb with a ceramic heat emitter. We even got to keep the dome we originally purchased because the CHE works just like a brooder light bulb minus the light.

So now we just leave the kitchen light over Rollo's pen on from around 8am (when we leave for school) until about 8pm when we get him out to play and socialize.

Rollo seems to be settling in exceptionally well, and I'll feel a lot better after a few days when we really get him on a schedule and have a better idea of his food/water intake etc.
But I think, after four days of continuous research and design we're finally getting a handle on the optimal hedgehog habitat for our Rollo.

Rollo rolled!

Rollo all rolled up in Rick's hands!

I'm Rollo!

Hello Operation Windmills Readers!
My name is Rollo!

Hi! I'm Rollo!

I am the Hedgehog adoptee that has just found my forever home with Rick and Erin!

Rick has given me the important job of keeping Erin company while he is away at his co-op in Wisconsin. So even though he doesn't leave until May, I am his Christmas present to her this year.
They decided to get me now so that I'd have plenty of time to bond with them both.

Because I'm now a part of their family, Erin thought it would be fun for me to tell everyone a little about myself.

Erin really likes this picture because it shows off my little white "saddlebags" and my cute dark ears!

I am a baby African Pygmy Hedgehog, right now I'm pretty little, I'm only 6 weeks old! Fully grown I will weigh about 1 pound and be about 5-8" long. A hedgies lifespan on average is 3-6 years, though sometimes we live to be as old as 10. Our intelligence is about that of a hamster, we don't really learn tricks, though we can be taught to perform certain behaviors through positive reinforcement (such as litter training - Erin has already started to work on litter training me).

I'm considered an "exotic" pet, even though I was bred right here in Iowa at Susan's Hawkeye Hedgies! Because there are no living hedgehog species native to North America, many people may be unfamiliar with hedgies.  So Erin thought it would be a good idea to asnwer the question "what IS a Hedgehog?" --Besides irresistibly cute!

A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae in the order Erinaceomorpha (Erin takes this to mean that she was destined to own a hedgehog.) I share a very distant ancestry with shrews, but hedgehogs have been their own animal for a long, long time and we hedgies have changed very little in the last 15 million years.

Hedgehogs are solitary, nocturnal, insectivores, but my diet is actually very close to omnivorous - because as a hedgehog, I'm a very opportunistic eater, feeding on anything from fruit to spiders to carrion. However, pet hedgies, such as myself, eat mostly high-quality cat food because of it's high protein/low fat content and are given treats of fruits, veggies and mealworms!

Here I am squishing between my food and water dish. Erin had to move my food when I tried to burrow underneath it and almost dumped it over. 

I'm pretty low maintenance requiring only the occasional bath and toenail clipping. I don't make much noise, except for a soft "huffing" noise when I'm exploring - I'm not a mute however, if seriously threatened a hedgehog is capable of emitting a piercing scream. I have very poor eyesight, but excellent hearing and an extremely sensitive sense of smell. In time, I'll learn to recognize Rick and Erin by their scent, rather than by their voice or sight.

Some hedgies are naturally "grumpy" and may never really outgrow it, but Erin and Rick chose me because I was a friendly hedgehog. (My breeder Susan specializes in healthy, well-socialized hedgies- something Rick and Erin thought was very important!) Also, caretaker handling goes a LONG WAY in socializing a hedgehog. So Erin and Rick will be playing with me everyday (whether I want to or not) to make sure I grow up to be a well-adjusted hedgehog who isn't afraid of people.

My spines are actually hollow hairs made stiff with keratin and unlike the quills of a porcupine, they are not barbed, nor are they poisonous.

So what's a Hedgehog NOT?
I am NOT RELATED to the Porcupine - A Porcupine is a rodent - I am NOT a RODENT
I do not "gnaw" on things
I do not have a discernable odor
I produce very little dander (so it's very rare that a person would be allergic to me)

So here I am, in my new home.

Rick says I'm going to be a super spoiled hedgehog living in this mansion

This is the pen that Rick and Erin built using 2, 30 gallon Sterilite tubs, and some 4" PVC piping as a tunnel - I really like going back and forth between my tubs and pushing around my litter tray.
I also have an igloo to curl up in, Aspen bedding to run around in (pine bedding can cause respiratory problems in hedgehogs) and the same cat food mix I was being fed by Susan.

Here's the top view of my new home. I'm in my igloo re-arranging my bedding.

They have ordered a large wheel and "hamster ball" for me off Amazon, and those should be arriving around the middle of next week. They've also installed a heat lamp and a thermometer to make sure I stay between 72 and 85 degrees - hedgehogs are temperature sensitive and if I get too cold I could try to hibernate which can be fatal for an unprepared (too skinny) hedgehog, and if I get too hot I could suffer from heat stress.

Erin promises to post more pictures of me soon. But I have had a Very Busy morning and she and Rick are letting me sleep now.

Picking on Rick...

So sometimes I get a little bored
Especially when Rick is in studying at the library
and I'm proud of him for that,
but he leaves his computer here at the apartment...

untended...

unsupervised...

This is his new desktop background. He hasn't discovered it just yet.

picture found on Pinterest, taken from Galactic Salvage Yard

You might, like my lovely sister, ask "WHAT is THAT?"
and I'd have to answer the same way I answered her - "It's clearly a cat riding a hamburger through space"

Because why not?

Iowa Arboretum with Janice!

Janice was in Des Moines for a nursing conference, so after her conference finished she came up to Ames to spend a couple days hanging out with us! Rick and I picked up her Catalpa seedlings at the Iowa State Alumni Center before she got in, and after a fun evening of grocery shopping and La Fuente and some Hearts (Rick won. Again.) We called it a night.

Saturday started off with sausage, eggs, toast, and coffee (all prepared by chef Rick!) then we walked the block and a half to the farmers market where we bought all kinds of lovely local produce! Green beans, and white "green" beans, Janice got some beautiful purple, orange and red peppers, an eggplant, some AMAZING apples, a little loaf of zucchini bread (with pecans), and some pumpkin bars!
I'll be so sad when the farmers market is over at the end of the month.

From the farmers market we went out to the Iowa Arboretum to do some bird watching and look at trees.

Rick and Janice beneath a Weeping Willow

ACORN! It's so pretty! 

Erin and Rick beneath a maple (Janice took the photo - I'm never in pictures!)

A Chickadee ponders on a shepherd's hook

House Finch in a pine tree

House Finch in a pine tree

English Sparrows (also called House Sparrows) in a pine tree

  After a couple hours at the Arboretum, we wandered to main street Ames where we had lunch at Olde` Main and checked out Oktoberfest. I also introduced Janice to Chocolaterie Stam where she got some chocolate goodies to take home to share, and my new favorite drink, the Spice Chai Latte` mix we use at Stam! SO GOOD! It's warm, foamy, goodness gets me through long shifts on a regular basis.

Then it was time for my shift to start (I worked 3-11pm) Way later than we're normally open. But we did have a good bit of a business because Oktoberfest and the polka band were literally RIGHT in front of the store.
Also, I got to watch my boss (the shop's owner) bustle in and out of the store in full Lederhosen regalia.

Rick's Co-op!

Rick interviewed Wednesday for a Co-op with Appvion.
This afternoon he got an offer to be their co-op in their Microencapsulation division (Encapsys)!

A co-op is a little different than an internship in that it's (always) paid, but he doesn't get "course" credit. He does, however, retain full-time student status through his co-op.

So come May, Rick will be moving to Appleton, Wisconsin (about thirty minutes south of GreenBay) and he'll be there through December.

Because the education curriculum is changing in Fall 2015, (which would add another semester+ to my time in school) I will be staying in Ames while Rick is in WI so I'll finish before the cut off.

Rick doesn't know yet what project(s) he'll be working on, only that he'll be in the microencapsulation division. I'm going to miss him, but we're both super excited for him to have gotten the position!

 

Monday Afternoon Birdwatching

Rick and I got most of our homework done early so that we could spend some time birdwatching this afternoon.

We haven't seen large numbers of water fowl yet, but the Ruby Crowned Kinglet migration is in full swing.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

We also saw several nuthatch, a year-round resident

White Breasted Nuthatch

Hermit Thrush

 We followed around a pair of Flickers all afternoon.
They're so pretty!

Northern Yellow-shafted Flicker

The chipmunk who lives under our stairs - Rick named him Johnny because he LOVES apples!