...it's decided!
this little guy will be coming home with me on Thursday!
{ click photos to view larger }
....it all started about a month ago when i went to a local petstore and got all pissy over how shitty petstores are in Japan (i mean serious, you should see the conditions animals are kept in and how everyone thinks it's fine when it ISN'T). i went to the small animals section where the animals are treated the worst of all and i got to day dreaming about i could so get away with having a small pet that largely lived in a cage. i looked at the ferrets, the chipmunks, the sugar gliders, the hedgehogs etc and left with all kinds of things floating around in my head.
the weeks after i casually started asking questions to my manager of my school and at this point had no intention of actually getting a pet. i asked stuff like "does the landlord ever do apartment checks?" ("no."), "i mean, if an animal was in a cage there'd be no damage done to the apartment right?" ("yeah, but i've never heard of a pet being allowed in the building in the 7yrs i've lived here."), "the apartment is in -insert name of school owner-'s name, isn't it?" ("yep."), etc.
obviously i didn't ask all these questions all at once or in a short period of time. that would be too obvious! D;
but anyway, the point is that thoughts had been swirling around in my mind. then came the YouTube videos and research of various small aniamls.... how easy are X to care for? could Y be brought into America by plane? would Z be difficult to hide if need be? would i still be able to travel if i had W? etc etc. i did a lot of researching, comparison and double checking of things until i had narrowed down the animals i actually had an interest in which would also be compatible with my needs (including importability into the US) and there was one animal that checked off every box on my long list of needs:
hedgehogs!
then came the days of obsessing over hedgehogs like a crazy cat lady except i was a crazy hedgehog lady person! i watched a million YouTube videos, read blogs, read this & that i English AND in Japanese. i researched breeders and sellers of hedgehogs in my area, found a vet in my area that handles them (because not all vets can/do), read up on their ability to cope with traveling both on short trips and international flights, etc. THEN, i went back to the local petstore and handled one...
that was almost the deal breaker.
the hedgehog was so sweet and awesome and lovely.... ;( her temperament was perfect-- she did none of the hissing or balling up that i had read countless people warn about during my research. i was seriously considering her, but then i noticed visible health problems.... crazy, overgrown and deformed nails + sores on her leg... i brought this to the attention of the store person who ran off with the hedgehog to have someone look her over. when she came back, i was given a spiel about how she's likely to always have sores on her legs because of her own quills (bullshit) and how the deformity of the nails is unlikely to change (true) and how she could offer a discounted price because of the health issues, but that there would also be no returns possible because of the health issues...
....yeah. yet another thing to add to my ever-growing list of reasons why petstores in this country are atrocious. as nice as that hedgehog was and as much as i don't want to see her be killed, fuck no am i going to buy her from you thank you very much. fuck you.
so then i went home disappointed... until i remembered finding the website of a store in Tokyo specializing in exotic small animals. the site actually sells their animals online........... which seems to be increasingly common in Japan. i do not understand it at all-- buying an animal without having ever actually met it and having it shipped across the country to your door like a box of books-- WTF Japan?? ANIMALS ARE NOT COMMODITIES TO BE CONSUMED (OR DISPOSED OF) LIKE OBJECTS, JAPAN.
....
anyway, the store (ピュア☆アニマル/Pure☆Animal) was highly rated, so i looked through the hedgehogs available on the website and was amazed. not only is detailed information given about each animal, there is a lot on the website that makes it clear that these people actually know their shit about these animals and put actual effort into doing right by them-- something that seems to be sadly lacking in general in this country. after being impressed by the store/site itself, i decided that i was really interested in a couple of their hedgehogs but i refused to purchase any animal online.. which resulted in me deciding to make a trip to Tokyo on short notice to see the store and the animals in person.
{ near ピュア☆アニマル }
{ in Ueno Park }
today i made the trip, working in some hanami/cherry blossom viewing along the way. this entry is already too long so i won't go into details about the store itself, but it was in a house in a totally off-the-beaten-track part of Tokyo that i'd never been to before. finding it required navigating lots of tiny little backend streets, but i was rewarded with cherry blossoms the entire way and i saw a side of Tokyo that made me question my negativity about the city. anyway, the store itself was tiny (did i say tiny??), despite being in a house. it's obvious that the store is the personal project of someone who really cares about exotic small animals more than the business side of things, and that made me happy to see. when i walked in the door i was immediately greeted by the young staff guy on duty who was very kind and helpful. he answered all of my questions in a way that was MUCH easier to understand than the shit i got told at the big petstore. he obviously knew his stuff and has advised new hedgehog owners many times before.
i told him the 3 hedgehogs that i was interested in meeting based on what i had seen on the website and he actually recommended against one of them because of that hedgehog's personality. i really appreciated his frankness about that. he let me meet the other two and after meeting both of them, the decision was easy. it was love at first holding with the little albino boy who is 52 days/7 weeks old. OMG HE IS SO CUTE AND PERFECTLY TEMPERED AND WONDERFUL IN EVERY WAY. there was no way i could walk away from that without kicking myself for it later....
...so i put down a deposit and reserved him. i'm going back to pick him up on Thursday.
{ a diary and stickers i picked up in Tokyo after making the reservation. }
in the meantime, i need to clean up this messy apartment, get everything setup for him and come up with a name. :) i want him to have a Japanese name since he's actually from a local breeder here in Japan (vs being imported like many hedgehogs here) and because i know that he will continue to be a connection back to Japan once i leave this country with him. cheesy, right?
anyway, in closing, this is so going to be me and my new hedgie in the future.
{ click photos to view larger }
....it all started about a month ago when i went to a local petstore and got all pissy over how shitty petstores are in Japan (i mean serious, you should see the conditions animals are kept in and how everyone thinks it's fine when it ISN'T). i went to the small animals section where the animals are treated the worst of all and i got to day dreaming about i could so get away with having a small pet that largely lived in a cage. i looked at the ferrets, the chipmunks, the sugar gliders, the hedgehogs etc and left with all kinds of things floating around in my head.
the weeks after i casually started asking questions to my manager of my school and at this point had no intention of actually getting a pet. i asked stuff like "does the landlord ever do apartment checks?" ("no."), "i mean, if an animal was in a cage there'd be no damage done to the apartment right?" ("yeah, but i've never heard of a pet being allowed in the building in the 7yrs i've lived here."), "the apartment is in -insert name of school owner-'s name, isn't it?" ("yep."), etc.
obviously i didn't ask all these questions all at once or in a short period of time. that would be too obvious! D;
but anyway, the point is that thoughts had been swirling around in my mind. then came the YouTube videos and research of various small aniamls.... how easy are X to care for? could Y be brought into America by plane? would Z be difficult to hide if need be? would i still be able to travel if i had W? etc etc. i did a lot of researching, comparison and double checking of things until i had narrowed down the animals i actually had an interest in which would also be compatible with my needs (including importability into the US) and there was one animal that checked off every box on my long list of needs:
hedgehogs!
then came the days of obsessing over hedgehogs like a crazy cat lady except i was a crazy hedgehog lady person! i watched a million YouTube videos, read blogs, read this & that i English AND in Japanese. i researched breeders and sellers of hedgehogs in my area, found a vet in my area that handles them (because not all vets can/do), read up on their ability to cope with traveling both on short trips and international flights, etc. THEN, i went back to the local petstore and handled one...
that was almost the deal breaker.
the hedgehog was so sweet and awesome and lovely.... ;( her temperament was perfect-- she did none of the hissing or balling up that i had read countless people warn about during my research. i was seriously considering her, but then i noticed visible health problems.... crazy, overgrown and deformed nails + sores on her leg... i brought this to the attention of the store person who ran off with the hedgehog to have someone look her over. when she came back, i was given a spiel about how she's likely to always have sores on her legs because of her own quills (bullshit) and how the deformity of the nails is unlikely to change (true) and how she could offer a discounted price because of the health issues, but that there would also be no returns possible because of the health issues...
....yeah. yet another thing to add to my ever-growing list of reasons why petstores in this country are atrocious. as nice as that hedgehog was and as much as i don't want to see her be killed, fuck no am i going to buy her from you thank you very much. fuck you.
so then i went home disappointed... until i remembered finding the website of a store in Tokyo specializing in exotic small animals. the site actually sells their animals online........... which seems to be increasingly common in Japan. i do not understand it at all-- buying an animal without having ever actually met it and having it shipped across the country to your door like a box of books-- WTF Japan?? ANIMALS ARE NOT COMMODITIES TO BE CONSUMED (OR DISPOSED OF) LIKE OBJECTS, JAPAN.
....
anyway, the store (ピュア☆アニマル/Pure☆Animal) was highly rated, so i looked through the hedgehogs available on the website and was amazed. not only is detailed information given about each animal, there is a lot on the website that makes it clear that these people actually know their shit about these animals and put actual effort into doing right by them-- something that seems to be sadly lacking in general in this country. after being impressed by the store/site itself, i decided that i was really interested in a couple of their hedgehogs but i refused to purchase any animal online.. which resulted in me deciding to make a trip to Tokyo on short notice to see the store and the animals in person.
{ near ピュア☆アニマル }
{ in Ueno Park }
today i made the trip, working in some hanami/cherry blossom viewing along the way. this entry is already too long so i won't go into details about the store itself, but it was in a house in a totally off-the-beaten-track part of Tokyo that i'd never been to before. finding it required navigating lots of tiny little backend streets, but i was rewarded with cherry blossoms the entire way and i saw a side of Tokyo that made me question my negativity about the city. anyway, the store itself was tiny (did i say tiny??), despite being in a house. it's obvious that the store is the personal project of someone who really cares about exotic small animals more than the business side of things, and that made me happy to see. when i walked in the door i was immediately greeted by the young staff guy on duty who was very kind and helpful. he answered all of my questions in a way that was MUCH easier to understand than the shit i got told at the big petstore. he obviously knew his stuff and has advised new hedgehog owners many times before.
i told him the 3 hedgehogs that i was interested in meeting based on what i had seen on the website and he actually recommended against one of them because of that hedgehog's personality. i really appreciated his frankness about that. he let me meet the other two and after meeting both of them, the decision was easy. it was love at first holding with the little albino boy who is 52 days/7 weeks old. OMG HE IS SO CUTE AND PERFECTLY TEMPERED AND WONDERFUL IN EVERY WAY. there was no way i could walk away from that without kicking myself for it later....
...so i put down a deposit and reserved him. i'm going back to pick him up on Thursday.
{ a diary and stickers i picked up in Tokyo after making the reservation. }
in the meantime, i need to clean up this messy apartment, get everything setup for him and come up with a name. :) i want him to have a Japanese name since he's actually from a local breeder here in Japan (vs being imported like many hedgehogs here) and because i know that he will continue to be a connection back to Japan once i leave this country with him. cheesy, right?
anyway, in closing, this is so going to be me and my new hedgie in the future.
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