From Ellen Kaye in upstate New York, this odd piece of news which warns you about snuggling and being physically affectionate with your pet…hedgehog.
I am hereby questioning whether the hedgehog is a “popular pet.” If it is then upstate New York is pretty strange compared to us downstate. Where I have personally witnessed pet dogs, cats, at least one boa wrapped around a guy’s neck in the subway and plenty of parrots perched on shoulders. If I see a hedgehog on a leash, I will…
Coincidentally, while I’ve been watching, “The Yorkshire Vet,” on Acorn TV, a couple of hedgehogs have come into the vet’s office for health reasons. One was sniffling and having trouble breathing. Moreover, he was sticking to and unraveling the sweater of the woman who valiantly brought him in. As well as biting her.
Peter Knight checked his temp, etc., found him to be OK and called him a great character. I don’t know what happened to the woman’s sweater. (I didn’t like it much anyway and thought it was unwise to wear a highly textured, loopy sweater when managing a hedgehog. Something fetching in a canvas might have been more suitable. And gloves.)
Meanwhile, I thought hedgehogs were British and that in the US we call them porcupines. In pursuit of further clarification about this, I did a bit of research.
And what is a hedgehog? A type of spiny mammal.
Tried to get a video of a porcupine sticking his quills into someone’s fingers but an irritating ad for a motorbike preceded the video so all we’re getting is this, from Wikipedia.
A porcupine is a rodent. Which is a type of mammal. Nowhere do I read the obvious relationship between the hedgehog and the porcupine. Some research!
So what is salmonella? (Stop me, please! This has gone way too far.)
Let’s get back to Walter Reed Watch.