Tuesday, June 24, 2008

What the Heck???


Kate Walker sent me an email yesterday with photos in it documenting the first encounter between her Maine Coon kitten (now a gorgeous teenager) Flora (aka Princess Flora Flooziebelle) meeting her first hedgehog. She's also just written the account up on her blog.

You may remember the hedgehog family who lives at the bottom of Kate's garden.

I christened them The Hecks after a series of Yorkshire villages we'd passed through the afternoon I arrived for my last visit in Sept 2006. The villages were called Great Heck and Little Heck and there may have been a Lesser Heck and even a Really Big Heck. One wonders what Heck meant in the days when villages got their names.

Anyway, the description seemed to fit the hedgehog family, who turned out for cat crunchies after dark that evening and allowed themselves to be photographed. They looked like a series of nestling Russian dolls -- albeit prickly ones.

As Sir Sidney, Flora's big brother, tends to give hedgehogs a wide berth, and Dylan (aka Dyl the Vil) has nothing good to say about them (not surprising as Dyl rarely has much good to say about most folks, except electricians with big hands -- and Bridget Coady who is His Favorite Person In The World), it was a surprise to see Flora and her new friend.

Apparently she wasn't quite sure what this new amazing creature was -- especially because it was Eating Her Food!

So she got closer, tentatively touched it with a paw, edged a bit closer with her nose (ouch!) and finally just decided it wasn't worth bothering with.

Rolling around on the ground and basking in the sun was far preferable.

It's an amazing world, as Flora is discovering. Glad to see you and Littlest Heck are becoming pals, Flora.

Enjoy your new friend!

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great pictures. Flora is a curious little thing isn't she. Love the one where she's just given up and decided to sunbathe instead.

Chris.

26 June, 2008  
Blogger Anne McAllister said...

Yes, I liked that one, too, Chris. She's definitely a curious kitten. I get to meet her in person (as it were) in September. I can hardly wait.

27 June, 2008  
Blogger Madeline said...

Anne those pictures of Flora are just too cute for words. Give her a nice scratch on the head from me, when you meet her. She's grown some sine the last pictures I saw of her. I hope all is well with you. Have a great 4th of July.
Hugs, Mads:)

29 June, 2008  
Blogger Anne McAllister said...

I'll certainly give Flora a headrub from you, Mads. She has grown a lot, hasn't she? I'm so looking forward to meeting her! Have a great 4th, too!

29 June, 2008  

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