The One with Me and the Hedgehog

First a little bit of background.

Ben's dad was a lover of all animals. He found them completely fascinating. He'd get on these kicks, with one animal in particular being all the rage and he'd study and read and research until he knew everything there was to know about that animal. He did the same things with plants as well.

When Ben was in high school, his dad turned their back porch into a greenhouse. He covered it in glass and plastic and filled it with cool plants-even a banana tree! He also made a little water feature and got some turtles and lizards that would scamper around the place. Like I mentioned before, Papa's motto was, "Fear ain't a part of my life." He made that especially true when he included a baby alligator into the greenhouse mix. The kept the gator until he was 3 or 4 feet long, then they took him to an alligator farm (a place Papa frequented).

Another time, Ben's dad was out and he found a little baby skunk that had been injured. So he scooped the skunk up and took it home. The skunk absolutely fell in love with Dad and never once sprayed him.

Anyhow, when Papa passed away, Ben's sister (Heather) and her husband really wanted to make something that would remind them of Dad. Something that Dad would be proud of. So they made this:

It is the coolest thing ever. And they seriously went all out. They even put pictures of Dad around:

Plus they've got one of those white noise machines going, making it sound like there are crickets chirping. And Heather's husband is going to make signs for all the critters with interesting facts about them and their names. Cool, right?

See Dad's cool turtle shell in the background?

Here are the girls with 2 of the 3 ferrets (sorry you can't see them well).

This is one of their turtles.

This is Heather (the mastermind) holding their little hedgehog.
She was seriously so cute and surprisingly cuddly...
not at first. But she got there.

Me and the African tortoise. These are the kind that get really big
and end up weighing like 200 pounds.
Let me get you a close up of this guy...
 

He looked TOO real. Is that possible?
My favorite thing about him is his name: Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Perfect, right?

I think I scared her. See how's she's flailing her arms??

Heather isn't the kind of person to do things half heartedly...and the petting zoo was no different. They did such a good job. I could have stayed in there all night long!

So awesome. I'm 100% sure that Dad would approve.