Baby hedgehog getting ready to party.
Friends are always sending me links to cute animal videos. I am quite aware of all the time it is possible to waste in a day, so I try to avoid watching them before I sit down to write. Unfortunately, once I begin watching the clips, it’s difficult to stop.
The videos are often on YouTube. There is a series on The Dodo called “Little But Fierce.” In just two weeks I have received from friends clips about a tiny armadillo who “likes to snuggle” and rolls around in a bathtub filled with water and the story of a “tiny pink blob” who “grew up into a hedgehog.” [Note: it was an hedgehog blob–what else would it grow up to be?]
If you watch enough of these videos you will discover that they all have a common story line. Because the animals are “rescued” there is an element of suspense: will they make it? And how do the human rescuers know what to do? In the case of the snuggly armadillo, there was a point at which its little heart failed and the rescuer did CPR on him for an hour and 45 minutes. And it worked! The baby hedgehog’s chances of survival were very slim but with constant feeding and a heating pad, he (she?) gained weight and, of course, became very snuggly. The rescued animals are often “tiny fighters” with “huge personalities.” I have a lot of admiration for a person who would take in a baby armadillo, but what on earth will she do with it when it’s full grown? It’s one thing to hire a cat sitter if you are going away; it’s an entirely different matter to find someone to babysit a 15-pound adult armadillo.
But then again, maybe it will provide inspiration for writing: Lonely Housesitter Befriends Adult Armadillo….could be a story….
Have a Good Week!
Photo by Liudmyla Denysiu via Unsplash
