Baby Hedgehogs

Okay. Cute photo of the day.

Take a look at this picture of three baby hedgehogs:
Baby_hedgehogs_2

Feel free to caption this one.

Incidentally, a characteristic of the human species is that they seem to find baby hedgehogs cute and like to take lots of pictures of them.

HOW ELSE TO EXPLAIN ALL THE DIFFERENT PICTURES OF CUTE BABY HEDGEHOGS AT GOOGLE IMAGES?

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

31 thoughts on “Baby Hedgehogs”

  6. chia presents new earmuffs that actually clean out ear wax while you wear them!*
    *warning: may bite

  7. You really think those things are cute? Have any of you ever seen the movie “Critters”?
    Seriously, though, they *are* pretty cute, though they do look like those annoying woodland burs that always stick to your clothes, and that you don’t realize are on you until you sit down and they dig their spines right into your flesh.

  8. The new handheld “Sonic the Hedgehog”. Each game gives you 3 lives.
    There must be something primal or innate that makes humans think that certain animals are cute. Is it because part of the whole “image and likeness of God” thing is that we also think (most of) His Creation is cute or cool?

  9. “They look like three wads of bubble gum rolled in coconut.”
    Tim J., don’t you ever chew those during Mass,
    and avoid eating them on Fridays!

  10. “don’t you ever chew those during Mass”
    Don’t worry, Fadduh.
    I never chew gum at Mass. It gets all mixed up with the Skoal.

  11. Skoal?
    Tim, here’s a bit of monastic lore–a true story.
    The oldest monks of my monastery (Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, California) came from St. Meinrad Archabbey in the cornfields of southern Indiana, an area settled by the monks and German speaking farmers in 1854.
    In the days when snuff was still common, one of the priest monks assigned to a countryside church was to be a dinner guest of a farm family. Following the normal etiquette of the day, the housewife had prepared a spittoon with clean sawdust for the use of the priest that evening. At one point, the teenage son of the family spat into “the priest’s” spittoon. The housewife reprimanded the young man. “That is for the Pater. You spit on the floor!”

  12. DISCLAIMER – Okay, to clarify, I don’t dip Skoal or any other tobakky, either at Mass or anywhere else.
    Just a little fun, there. 😉
    I also don’t smoke.
    I do, however, have a beer or so every day for health reasons.
    Sometimes I miss a few days, though. Then I am forced to have several all at once, just to catch up.
    Hee.
    Then the whole world is as cute as a baby hedgehog.

  17. “Sometimes I miss a few days, though. Then I am forced to have several all at once, just to catch up.”
    Irishman movies into a tiny Irish hamlet goes into a bar and orders three beers, and drinks them, sitting at a table alone,day after day. Finally the barkeep asks, “I don’t meant to pry, but folks have been wondering why you order exactly three beers every day and sit alone, drinking them.” Irishman tells him that his two brothers have emigrated,one to America and one to Australia, and they promised to have a drink together nonetheless, every day at the same time, to keep up the family bond.”
    Then, one day, the man comes in and orders only two beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening – he orders only two beers. The word flies around town. Prayers are offered for the soul of one of the brothers.
    The next day, the bartender says to the man, “Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know-the two beers and all…”
    The man ponders this for a moment, then replies, “You’ll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well… It’s just that I, myself, have decided to give up drinking for Lent.”

  19. Mr Haas, I ’bout near snorted water all over my monitor! Thanks for the laugh.
    And same to you anon4!
    Hedgehogs are indeed cute. Even the adults. They’re illegal to have as pets in some states, like California, so double check. If you get ’em as cute li’l babies, they’ll bond to you (learn you scent) & you can easily pick them up & *pet* them (after a sort) without using gloves to keep their quills from jabbing you.
    And they make this really great noise that sounds like a pheumatic machine of some sort. One of my nephews had a hedgehog that my sister nicknamed Mr Huff-n-puff because of the sounds he’d make.
    They have very, very strong abdominal muscles & very, very sharp teeth. They’re very, very cute when they eat because they use their hands like raccoons do. But most owners will never see them eat ‘cos hedgehogs are nocturnal. Great pets for folks who work swing shifts! 😉

  20. I believe adult mammals respond instinctively to the stubby proportions of baby mammals, so naturally we like cute little baby hedgehogs.

  21. Very cute. Though their genteel looks belie their physical prowess. I had a hedgehog once that could catch a frisbee.

  23. Psychologists with time on their hands have determined that people seem programmed to see three traits as “cute.” A larger eye to head ratio, a recessed chin, and a bulging cranium. Stephen J Gould has a good essay about it looking at Mickey Mouse and him looking younger as the years have gone on. As we age we tend to look more apelike than we did when younger. Mickey Mouse has done the opposite.

  24. Well, sure! I mean, otherwise we’d hafta call him “Mickey Monkey” or something!

  25. Actually, Hello Kitty is the result of a great experiment researchers performed with a variety of faces with different proportions and distances. (I got this from a documentary while I was living in Japan.)
    So next time you seem strangely drawn to a Hello Kitty store despite your age and gender, remember: science is making you do this.

  26. Okay, here’s my shot at a caption:
    Look at these yummy little bite-sized treats! Crunchy on the outside, soft an’ chewy on the inside! Lemme just pop one in my mouth … OH! THE HUMANITY!! IT’S LIKE CHEWING A BOX OF OLD RAZORS!!!!!! (Chokes, gags, dies. Baby hedgehog exits mouth, triumphant.)

  28. Ouch. How does Mama Hedgehog deliver her babies without getting holes punched in her innards?

Comments are closed.