So, this was the second hedgehog our vet had ever seen. And they’d never heard of Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome. I had a feeling they thought we were making it up. But they were really open to taking us in the back and having us show the websites where they could get more information. They weren’t entirely comfortable saying this was definitely WHS but even a vet with WHS experience would know there’s only one way to tell for sure. By doing an autopsy. They read all the materials and in the meantime had done a few tests.

It turns out she could roll into a ball she was just not scared enough to do it with us. I hadn’t seen her form a complete ball in, gosh, a year? I’d thought she just didn’t need to all along but the last week I was starting to get worried. So it was nice to know that not only could she still do it but she was comfortable enough with us to not need ball up.

After reading up on the websites we showed them the ladyvet came in and talked about the different ways and causes, which we knew about, of course, because we’d shown them the websites. In a nutshell it’s mostly genetic, some think it’s related to diet or a trauma. It’s a degenerative disease, the symptoms can be staved with certain supplements. I told her about the food I mixed for Zola and how I’d been adding feline missing link to it for the last year or so. And she’d never had any trauma. So that was out.

We did find out that she was blind. That hadn’t even occurred to me. She’s a nocturnal animal and relies primarily on scent anyway. But to be that small with such a tiny brain and not be able to see must be terrifying. That was what made us decide that she’d had enough.

Flying Baby Zola June 2003

The vet people were very sensitive about the process. They brought her to us in our room and let us cuddle and say goodbye. She really been enjoying being rubbed from her nose to her headquills and would move her head up to guide my index finger. She was tired though. And we got to see that she wouldn’t blink when our fingers came close to her face. But “the hand” was nice and warm as always.

We always joked that while the other pets would call me Mom, Zola just thought of me as “the hand”. As in “Oh no there’s that hand again” as it would reach into the cage to get her. Or “Oh my god, hand save me!” when she was crawling around in the bathtub. She’d been relying on “the hand” a lot the last few days to eat, drink, and walk, and while there was something sweet in her tired gentleness it was sad to not have her usual grumpy hedgehog mood. Cute grumps are the essence of hedgehogs.

They took her in the back to give her gas before the injection. I’d insisted on that. Then after a few minutes they brought us back there to be with her. She was such a tiny little thing on that big operating table for dogs and cats. The gas mask covered her entire head. Her eyes were half closed and she was on her right side with her belly exposed, left limbs sticking out- as she’d been sleeping a lot these days. They gently gave her a shot in the liver. She didn’t flinch. I rubbed her tummy and tiny little paws and she went gently. She was gone in less than a minute and her little fuzzy legs completely relaxed. I was mostly numb. I’d been preparing for this the last few days. Cody had a hard time with it. I think part of that was we were in the same room where he was with Ascii when they put her down. I think it was a lot of things.

Gorgonzola Pokypants Boobiethon 2004

We’ve sent her little body to the state animal coroner (or something like that) for an official necropsy. We’ll have official paperwork about whether or not this was Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome. Then they’re sending her back to the vet who will cremate her for us. She’ll be in a little box that we can put next to Ascii’s big box in the living room.

I have moments where I miss her but I know that we did the best we could for her. I gave her a good home, excellent food, and a good wheel to run on. Two things I think I could’ve done better: cleaned her cage and clipped her nails more often. That’s all. And that’s not bad.

We stopped at Border’s on the way home. Cody wanted to get some books and I had a DVD being held at the desk. When we were checking out I wandered over to some stuff that looked like jewelry - black corded things with beads. Just looking around. I put my hand on a tangled wad of cords with beads and there was a little brass hedgehog hanging off the cord of something called a “book thong”. I quickly untangled it from the mess and told Cody to wait I had something else to buy. It’s a black cord with beads on either end and a little hedgehog charm hanging off of one. This was a little gift in memory of my Zola bean.

Zola with Santa, December 2005