Maga Surprise

After a few texts back and forth with my mom, I said to the kids . . . "What do you think about Maga getting you all one gift to share for Christmas? And what if she brought it early?" Well, they thought that would be fun! A few days later Maga arrived . . .

The curious kids met her on the stairs. Maga started handing out a variety of odd things . . . a bag of cat food, a bag of meal worms, a plastic bucket, and some toothbrushes. My oh my, the confusion on the kids' faces :)

They figured out that their gift was "something alive." As Maga went out to her car, they waited with anticipation in the kitchen for her return. She reappeared with a fairly large cage, covered in a brown blanket. Graysen starts chanting, "I hope it's a bear! I hope it's a bear!" Lol!

Well, it is not a bear, but a hedgehog! As I've mentioned before, Buck had one when he was growing up, and really enjoyed it as a pet. Maga noted the loss of Pippen, and brought us a new fellow to care for :) The kids decided to call him "Radagast" to keep up our Tolkien-themed pet names (we told this to our guitar teacher and he said, "Nerds!" ha!!) The idea was actually Buck's . . . he remembered that the bird-poop haired nature wizard had a pet hedgehog. Seemed to fit perfectly :)

He's a gigantic hedgehog! We've learned a lot about these creatures . . . such as, they need to stay warm. This might be the first winter we keep our thermostat in *normal people* range. Usually we walk around shivering (or at least I do) moving from blanket to blanket. Another thing we've noticed--this dude is FAST! He's not a slow-moving animal. If he gets away from you, you better hustle to catch up. Granted, he's pretty pudgy . . . we've learned he only needs a tablespoon or two of food a day, which is not much :) We also bought him an exercise dish . . . not wheel because their feet can fall through the wires, or something? But a flat plastic dish that spins. He's pretty funny on that disc, the poor, blind little critter :) We're also experimenting with habitat. Currently he has a cage and plastic tote to play in . . . they are lined with old baby blanket materials from my fabric bag, wood chips, and he burrows in a pair of my discarded sweatpants that Caelan sewed sleeping bags out of for him :)

We've decided Radagast is a study in contrasts: ugly, but cute!; cuddly, but prickly; small, but so fat!; noisy, but in a quiet, percolating way; defensive, but well-protected; he looks like he should be lazy, but he's super active!; tiny legs, but loves to climb (this is making the enclosure situation tricky). It is fun getting to know our little Radagast :)

The one family member not-so-sure about all this is Chauncey :) Though he's being a good sport (at least he hasn't tried very hard to eat the new pets :) !

Sniffing the hedgehog roasting by an open fire (okay, it's not open, but the lyric fit :)

Standing on tippy-toes to see if he can escape, but Caelan has an eye on him :)

Graysen though Gimli should come upstairs and enjoy our company.

Chauncey is still not convinced that this ISN'T a treat :)