Last Sunday was Superbowl Sunday and I really loved it this year, even though I’m normally not much of a football fan. As someone who grew up outside Baltimore, I was thrilled when the Baltimore Ravens made it to the Superbowl. I was so thrilled that I accepted an invitation to a party that someone from my separated/divorced persons support group held. The only downside is that minutes before the game started the party host had his Fios go out and he wasn’t able to get Verizon to send a repair person to his house on such a short notice so he brought out the radio to listen to a simulcast of the game. We hung around, socialized, ate food, and listened to the radio for a while until the start of the second half when we heard that someone on the Ravens made a spectacular play. At that point people wanted to actually see the game instead of listening to it so the party essentially broke up around 8:30 p.m. By the time I got home the infamous 30-minute blackout that struck the stadium in New Orleans (and temporarily halted the game) had ended and the game resumed. I was thrilled when the Baltimore Ravens won the Superbowl.
A few hours before the Superbowl, I decided to clean Spike’s cage in the afternoon even though he was still sleeping. (Hedgehogs are usually nocturnal.) I decided to watch the annual Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet while cleaning the cage. Each year I usually watch the Puppy Bowl because it is so cute. With a bunch of cute puppies in a pen resembling a football field playing rough (with each other and with various football-shaped balls) and a bunch of cute kittens performing in the halftime show, the Puppy Bowl is so hard to resist.
Last year the Puppy Bowl included a cockatiel named Meep the Bird who issued tweets on Twitter during the game (LOL!) and a blimp filled with hamsters. Meep and the hamsters returned this year along with another addition that had me almost squealing with delight! For the first time the Puppy Bowl had hedgehog cheerleaders. Hedgehog cheerleaders! Here are some screen shots of them in action.
The biggest irony is that I’m a hedgehog owner who lives close to the headquarters of Animal Planet’s parent company (Discovery Channel). If I had known about the addition of hedgehog cheerleaders to this year’s Puppy Bowl, I definitely would’ve gone there with Spike and auditioned him. (LOL!)
In the meantime, I decided to do something cute last week while I was cleaning Spike’s cage. Before I start, I usually move Spike from his cage to a green tub that’s lined with newspapers. I usually put in a mealworm or two for Spike to snack on while I go about the cleaning. That time I also added a surprise to Spike’s cage. I recently purchased this $5 stuffed hedgehog from one of the stores at Savage Mill and I put it in the tub to see how Spike would respond to a hedgehog-shaped stuffed animal that’s slightly smaller than him.
Initially Spike sniffed at the stuffed hedgehog.
But then I realized that Spike wasn’t impressed by the stuffed hedgehog at all. He ignored his stuffed doppelganger and decided to do what he usually does when he’s in the tub—bury himself under one of the newspaper layers so he would completely hide himself.
Sagittarius Dolly 