Dear World,
Little Miss Kiwi-Keys Chaos has gone to hedgehog heaven. She lived a very happy three years, seven months and seven days... and despite constantly thinking that I would one day squish her to death from cuteness overload, she passed away due to jaw cancer :(
Kiwi passed away Tuesday October 13th... and it has taken me a while to gather my thoughts and pictures of Kiwi I wanted to share.
A little bit lot about Kiwi:
Kiwi was born on a winter-almost-spring day: March 6, 2012. Time of birth is not documented - I came home one day and found that mama Chaos had not eaten a bite of food all day. I tried to get Chaos' attention to get her to eat food but she just kept hissing at me! So I said "Fine Chaos, go ahead and starve, see if I care!!" even though I cared very much... then I heard the CUUUUUUTEST little suckling noises ever. I then realized that Chaos had given birth!! I covered her cage with a towel to give her privacy and called Bobby to tell him the good news! Bobby came home and we went out for dinner to celebrate :)
We didn't disturb Chaos for 9 days - I was so terrified she would feel threatened and eat a baby! We only had Chaos for less than a month, I didn't know if she 'trusted' us... so we left her alone. It was sooo adorable hearing the babies squeak for their mama... and Chaos was the best hedgehog mama ever!
On the 9th day of Kiwi's existence, I came home and found Chaos sleeping BEHIND their little hut. I panicked because no one was keeping the babies warm! Hedgehogs are born furless and blind - they get their warmth from their mama (okay so is this first and only strike against otherwise perfect Chaos!)... so I picked Chaos up to force her back home... and boy did Chaos panic!!! Luckily, she calmed down and continued to be the world's greatest hedgehog mama :) And this was the day we realized that Chaos had given birth to three little hoglets :)
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| First pic of the babies at 9 days old |
We started handling the babies at 14 days old... and we discovered that Chaos had birthed three perfect baby girls :) I initially named the babies Kiwi, Mango and Papaya.. Bobby ended up renaming a baby Bowser, and our friend Aleks named her adopted hoglet Purdy. I know you are never supposed to pick a favourite, but Kiwi has ALWAYS been my favourite :) She had such a crazy personality - ever since she was a month old, she was a dare devil: you put her on any surface and she would JUMP. Seriously! When hedgehog babies are young (a month old or less), their spikes are constantly spiked out... so baby Kiwi would jump off the coffee table... and I would go to catch her... and OUCH. The craziness never stopped. You had to watch this one like a hawk ;)
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| Babies at 14 days old! It was adorable how they always slept next to each other! |
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| Babies learning to use mama's wheel |
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| Weighing the baby fatties: Bowser was always the largest, Kiwi was the middle sized babe, and Purdy was the smallest |
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| Baby Kiwi!! Taken on April 6, 2012... so she was exactly one month old |
Eventually, after re-homing the other two babies, we were down to Chaos and Kiwi. Chaos was such a sweet mother... and Kiwi was such a brat for a daughter :) But she was adorable so how could you not love her!?
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| Kiwi and Chaos (in background) |
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| Kiwi's first summer (as a 4 month old hedgie) |
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| Hiding behind gigantic sunglasses like a bunch of cool kids! |
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| "Keep back!" says mama Kay |
Kiwi's favorite treats were cat treats, graham crackers.. and anything crunchy like cereal. When she got older, she started getting into fruits (mangoes were her latest obsession).
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| Cereal :) |
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| mmmmango! |
She was very spoiled (not once did Bobby go to the pet store without at least looking for a new toy for Kiwi). Ultimately, her favorite toys were fake grass pieces (Bobby bought Chaos and Kiwi fake grass one day... and that night, Kiwi brought all of the little pieces in her hut and she slept beside them pretty much most nights of her life) and nerf gun ammo (she found a piece in the apartment one day and brought it home to live with her collection of fake grass pieces!). Otherwise, she didn't care for other toys :)
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| Kiwi protecting her nerf gun ammo and grass piece |
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| Sleeping with her prized possessions |
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| Fake grass all the time! |
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| Most of her toys: Fake Bowser the dryer ball (named after Baby Bowser), rocks from Bobby's hikes, pinecones... and of course the fake grass and nerf ammo |
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| Hello Kiwi, do you like our new house? |
Kiwi (and Chaos) had a hoggy door on their cage and I would often let Kiwi run home to escape my craziness. She knew how to get home from the living room/dining room area. As she got older (and Marco moved out), we moved her to the third bedroom of the apartment so we could better control the temperature (hedgehog's are very temperature sensitive). After we moved Kiwi, it took her a while to re-learn how to get home (you can't teach old 'hogs new tricks ;))
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| I had to teach Chaos how to use her hoggy door, but the babies learned how to use the door really quickly and they liked to make their great escape :) |
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| Running home... check out my Christmas wreath by the way ;) |
Kiwi's claim to fame
I started an official
instagram account for Kiwi earlier this year... after heavily spamming my Facebook friends with nothing but hedgehog pics... and let's face it, 50% of this blog is hedgehog entries.... And one morning, I woke up and found that a picture Dora took of Kiwi ended up on @AnimalsOverPeople! Her picture got over 3000 likes! And she made so many new hedgehog friends!
Also, Kiwi had her own personal photo shoot, thanks to Dora of
21 Mpix Photography. Here are a couple of shots:
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| I'm cute... this is the same pic that got featured on @animalsoverpeople |
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| Hello world! |
And now, some of my fave pics of Kiwi:
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| In my pink towel |
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| Kiwi and kiwi! |
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| Kiwi, Old Chaos and Chaos |
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| Watching men's hockey during the 2014 winter olympics |
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| Hello, can I help you with something? |
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| Kiwi's love notes to Bobby |
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| Kiwi's third birthday... the last birthday we got to celebrate together |
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| Kiwi's last half birthday... we missed it by a couple of weeks because we were away... Kiwi was already diagnosed with cancer at this point and we wanted to make her half birthday extra special! |
Our sincerest thank yous
In no particular order:
- To Aleks and Brad-Ja-Luca for watching our babies whenever we went away.
- To Dora/21 MPix Photography for Kiwi's private photoshoot... I am so grateful for all of the beautiful pictures from this day that I will get to reflect on
- To Pawsh Pet/Melissa for taking care of Kiwi when she was sick and we were away. Melissa did such a great job and I am so grateful we found her. I was so stressed out having to go away when Kiwi was sick but unfortunately, our trip was pre-planned. Melissa was able to take my stress level down a couple of levels.
- To Eagle Ridge Animal and Bird Hospital... words cannot express how kind their staff are. When we first brought in Kiwi with her swollen cheek, I was devastated to learn that she had cancer. We decided to bring her home until it was her time to go.... Today, I received a sympathy card signed by the staff at this hospital. It was extremely unexpected and it caught me off guard and I immediately burst into tears. No one ever understands the bond you have with an animal but I was so touched by their kindness
And finally, to my sweet Kiwi:
Thank you for 3 and a half years of love, happiness and silliness! You brought so much joy and laughter to us and to our family and friends. I miss you so much but I am so happy you are pain free. Run free my Kiwi-Keys. I love you
