Wilbur Died

So Wilbur died yesterday. Wilbur was Joshua's pet hedgehog which he got for free, cage and other stuff included. I was not happy that we had still another pet in the house that could do little more than sit in a cage and hiss at you when you tried to touch it. But the price was right and it was a fait accompli by the time I came into the picture.

Wibur needed special food and special water, and I never saw the appeal of him, and after awhile the novelty wore off. Nevertheless, he was an interesting pet to have.

A few weeks ago Dorothy saw him in bad shape in his cage. One of his toys had become attached to him somehow--a thread wrapped too tightly around his leg. He seemed to have exhausted himself dragging it around and trying to free himself. Dorothy found a vet that could treat him, and they kept him for a few days after they removed the thread (which was really dug into his leg) and he seemed to be getting better. He had to take some antibiotics, and he had to be fed baby food and water at first with a syringe.

It was cute watching my daughter Haley holding him and "feeding the baby" every morning before I went to work. I was getting used to hearing the call of 'Time to feed Wilbur!" around the house.

Sadly, as I went to work yesterday, Wilbur was having trouble waking up. A couple days before he had finally started moving around a bit on his own again, and we thought he had turned the corner. But for whatever reasons, yesterday morning he was clearly alive, but sluggish, and shortly after I got home from work, I was summoned upstairs from checking my FB account to find Dorothy in tears. she was holding Wilbur, but it was clear he was very nearly dead. He was still warm, but now we knew would not be waking up again.

I took him back upstairs to his place, and left him wrapped warmly in a towel, and during the night sometime Wilbur went to animal heaven.