Styx's First Field Trip

When you have a hedgehog as a pet, it is hard for people not to be curious about it. It is even harder for people not to be curious about mine since I have her paw print tattooed on my ankle (along with Hades' and Azrael's). When people notice the tattoo, and I tell them it is my cats' and my hedgehog's paw prints, the response is inevitably, "You have a hedgehog?!" and the barrage of questions begins.

At times, people become so curious that they just have to see her for themselves. Not a whole lot of people have ever seen a hedgehog, and most of the time the only point of reference they have is Sonic, which she really looks nothing like.

This is what happened with the women at Tim's job, especially since they heard him "fuffing" at me over the phone one day. When he explained the noise that Styx makes when she is agitated (she sounds like a cross between a rattlesnake and and a record player) the ladies decided that they absolutely needed to meet this fascinating creature. Since it was unlikely that these women would all troop to my apartment on their lunch hour to meet Styx, my hedgehog's first field trip was planned.

Since Tim only works a mile from the apartment (yes, my heart bleeds for his difficult commute) I could easily bring Styx to the office, show her off, and return her home before heading off on my own 45-minute commute. It was well worth the effort.

Styx, my irritable, snotty, holier-than-thou pet, performed beautifully on her first outing from the moment I placed her in her obnoxious pink Paris Hilton-esque pet carrier. The minute we stepped outside she was awake, alert and very out of character. At the office, she fuffed, curled, preened and pranced for the women of Palm Aluminum and Glass, and they cooed over her as, I can only imagine, they would have had I brought in my newborn baby, and I similarly acted the proud protective mama.

I'm now planning Styx's next field trip, since the folks at my office were pretty put out that I didn't bring her to meet them as well.

It's damn fun to have such a cool pet.