©2003-2009 TheHedgieDen  All rights reserved.

This page is dedicated to all of our sweethearts that we have lost over the years. 

I know they are all over the Rainbow Bridge, healthy and happily playing. 

 We love you all and you will forever be in our hearts. 

Cinder developed Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome when she was 19 months old.  She progressed very slowly and survived over a year from her initial symptoms. 

Cinder was a wonderful girl who loved to chew the other girls quills and annoint.  Chewing our clothing was one of her favourite things to do and she ran marathons on her wheel each night until she was unable to.

We love you Cin and the girls all miss you.

Pixie was a wonderful mother of one little boy.  When her boy was 2 weeks old she started fostering Abby's baby boy who had been born the same day as her own boy.  Abby had a boy and a tiny little girl and we felt the wee girl wasn't getting enough milk.

Pixie took on the other little boy like he was her own.

Sadly Pixie developed Fatty Liver Disease and died the day before the boys turned 4 weeks old.

We love you Pixie.  You were such a wonderful addition to our hedgie family and we all miss you.

Tinkerbell was a rescue from the Humane Society that came into the petstore that Jess works at.  We all fell in love with her and home she came.  She was a silly little kitten who we nic-named Stinkerbell because of her little kitten antics.

Tink grew into a beautiful young cat with a wonderful personality.  She loved to cuddle and like her older 'sister' she loved the hedgehogs.

Tink was sleeping more than normal and her belly bloated up.  We thought maybe she had worms although where an indoor cat would get worms we couldn't imagine.  We took her to the vet expecting something minor and left without her.  Tinkerbell had FIP, Feline Infectious Perotinitis.  This disease is always fatal so we had our Tink put to sleep rather than have her suffer any longer.  We were all devastated.  We lost Tink 2 weeks after Pixie died. 

Tink, Pixie and Cinder are all buried together under our pine tree.

Tessa

July 6,03 - April 22, 06

Tessa was our first ferret and we quickly grew to love ferrets because of her.  She was a comical little tease who love to sneak up and attack our feet.  She was an 'ankle bitter' in the true sense of the word.  Tess got along with all the other ferrets and was very gentle.

Late Saturday evening we found her lethargic.  She had been fine that afternoon.  She died soon after.  We have no clue what was wrong but suspect insuloma although the vet told us they usually have symptoms which she did not. 

RIP sweet girl

We all miss you including your fuzzy buddies Tilly, Tucker, Tyson, Bear, Argo, Summit and Onyx.

Pagen is survived by numerous children and grandchildren. 

Our Kesia is his daughter and Kendi and Kaida his grand-daughters. 

We lost our beautiful Luke. 

Luke was the type of hedgehog everyone loves.  He was calm, gentle and very social. 

He was an all round beautiful boy.

Luke was the first baby that was born here and died here and we are heartbroken.

Luke quit eating and started having horrible green mucousy poop. 

He was on medication and was being syringe fed and we thought he was improving but he started having bloody diahrea and went downhill so fast.

Luke's pathology came back as a bacterial infection.  A few others had become sick as well but the pathology report came back fast enough that we were able to properly treat them and they got better.   It drove us crazy trying to figure out the cause and why some got sick and others didn't.  A few months later we found out that the mealworms we had purchased from a local petstore were stored under a leaking fish aquarium.   When I purchased more mealworms and discovered they were very damp, stunk and half were dead, I immediately thought back to the mealworms we had gotten right before Luke got sick.  The substrate they were in was fairly damp as well although didn't smell and only a few dead so I just assumed a different supplier.  After purchasing the damp and smelly batch I questioned why and was told about the aquarium water.  Suddenly, everything fell into place as to why only some got sick and why poor Luke died so quickly.  Those who don't like mealworms, didn't get sick.  When poor Luke got sick, mealies were the only thing he would eat on his own so I gave him as many as he wanted.  Needless to say, I don't buy anything from that store anymore. 

We love you and miss you beautiful boy. 

Sweet beautiful funny Emma.  What a huge hole you have left in our hearts and in our hedgie family.  You were our first girl and have always been a main personality in the hedgehog room. 

You, Snow and Peaches were our first girls and you three were best of friends.  Even after we got other girls, you 3 always found each other during playtime. 

As many of you know, Emma has had more than her share of problems in the past couple years.  In February 06, she clawed her eye out.  We don't know if she got a quill poke or why she did it.  The loss of an eye did not slow her down in the least.  The only thing different we noticed about her was that she always wheeled with the blind side out. 

In July of 2006 she started loosing quills.  For the first numerous months they grew back as she lost them but in late November new quills quit coming in and she was becoming almost bald.  Despite many vet visits, testing and medication no reason could be found for her continuing quill loss. 

Right before Christmas she started uterine bleeding and was immediately spayed.  It was then felt that her quill loss was most likely hormonal caused by the problem in her uterus.  Her quills started growing back. 

Emma bounced back from the spay like the trooper she was.  During her illness she had become quite spoiled and decided that she HAD to have mealies EVERY time someone walked into the room.  She would lay her head down and give the sucky look at the bars of her cage.  She never failed to gain our sympathy and a mealie or two. 

For the past few weeks, Em had quit wheeling and instead did laps in her cage.  Round and round she would go and every few laps she would stop and shoot a look at me as if to say, “where’s the mealies”. I’d be in the room for 2-3 hours each evening and Em would do laps the entire time.

She seemed fine and was eating and active but we had the feeling something wasn't right with her.  I discovered during cleaning that she had pooped blood during the day.  She was very lethargic but let us syringe her some food and of course had some mealies.  We were hopeful.

The next morning we knew she was dying and on the way to the vet she passed in my arms.

Em, we love you and will never ever forget our Miss Em.  The hedgie room seems so empty without that funny little face watching our every move.

RIP Sweet girl