Lessons from the Hedgehog

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Hedgehog meets the world and flees.

prickly 2

I’m babysitting my daughters Hedgehog. It’s very cute and I want to love it but it’s difficult because every time I pick it up it rolls into stickery ball of prickles. Clearly it thinks I’m scary, and while I’ve never seen myself in this light, I’m not offended since the hedgehog is afraid of everyone and everything. It’s too bad, because it actually has a pretty good gig.


It has a fun cage with lots of amenities.


The problem is this sleeping bag. See the green fuzzy blanket thing? That’s where it sleeps and also spends 99 percent of its time. Now I understand, the world is a crazy place. We often feel like tiny insignificant bugs easily crushed by the swatter of life and it can be tempting to stay in bed with the covers over our heads. But when we do, we miss out on a lot of fun. Hedgehog could be playing on its wheel or running up and down its ramp. It could be eating some of its fun treats – dehydrated cricket or mealworm anyone?

But instead, it hides in its bag or under a towel, or inside a drink cup, anywhere it can get away and pretend to be alone.

After a few days it began to warm up to me. It allowed me to hold it without inflicting stab wounds, and I believe it might eventually tolerate my friendship, but in the meantime it lives its life alone and misses out on a lot. I’m reminded of a story about a man who went on a cruise and stayed in his room eating saltines because he didn’t know about the free buffet in the dining room.

Lessons I’ve learned from the hedgehog? Don’t hide in the dark. Pluck up your courage and come out and play – even when you’re a little afraid. Most people aren’t that scary, and life might be more fun than you think.

Being alone has nothing to do with how many people are around.

Richard Yates

I found this great quote at Sleepy girl check out her blog!

29 thoughts on “Lessons from the Hedgehog”

  1. Pingback: SASSY Saturday – The Sassy Library Fox

  6. This hedgehog is too cute! ❤ Does it have a name? 🙂
    And you're right with everything you said. In times of social distancing we're supposed to stay away from each other in order to keep everyone healthy and safe. We are very social creatures though and to hide from the world won't help. I've been heading to work even during lockdown because people still need my help and if my company and I don't help them no one will. We can't hide from the world because the people within it still need us. All we can do is to try to be careful and considerate. We follow the rules and hopefully sooner or later our world will come out of its winter sleep. XD

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    • Its long winter sleep . . . I like that. It’s like we’re hibernating, just waiting for better days to come. But as time goes on, we start to wonder if we just need to wake up and get on with it because those better times are kind of elusive.
      Glad you have a job where you’re helping people. That’s what I like about my library job – I get to help people find books! I was surprised by how much people missed coming to the library during lockdown. Anyway, thanks for contributing – to the world and to my blog.

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  7. I love this post Geanie. First, that hedgehog is soooo cute. Second what a perfect analogy for what is happening in the world right now. I just read two books about a Hedgehog rescue in the UK (fiction, romance), but I learned a lot about them with these books. I am glad he warmed up to you a bit. I am with you, I always worry that I will be looking after someone’s pet and something happens to him/her. Glad he made it back to his woman safely.

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    • Thanks Carla, That’s kind of what I was thinking too. Many of us are like the hedgehog in thinking that if we just hide out maybe the world will go away. But we can’t hide forever. I don’t things will ever go back to how they used to be, which is bad in some ways, but good in others. You have to admit, we’ve come a long way in the last few months even though it has been a rough road.
      Thanks for reading my scribbles!

      Liked by 1 person

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    • That’s what I’ve found. Sometimes I dread something so much, but after I’ve forced myself to do it, I’m amazed how easy it really was i.e., taking a terrible math class, giving a speech in front of lots of people, starting a blog . . . Sometimes we just have to move out of the comfort zone.
      Also, most people are as scared as we are. Can we all just be nice to each other?

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  10. I get the point(s). This was a very timely post. Right now with all that is going on in the world it would be easy to hide away and hope that things somehow get better. But if everyone does that, who will make things better? We all still need to engage in life to the extent that we can. We can hedge our bets, but sometimes it is better to go all in.
    In Norway hedgehogs are considered good luck. So, good luck to everyone.

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    • You make a great “point” bestadman. If everyone sticks their head in the sand who’s going to look around to see what needs to be done? We need to engage for the good of our society and for our emotional well being. We – unlike the hedgehog are social creatures and need people in our lives – even the prickly ones.

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    • Thanks Jo, It was fun to have the little guy, but so glad it’s gone. I’m always afraid other people’s pets will kick the bucket on my watch, so don’t usually agree to this. Hedgie was a nice diversion from all the Covid boredom though. Thanks for reading.

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