The Best Pet This Side of the Mississippi

What's up guys and gals!? Today has been amazing! On my way to aviation training this morning I stopped by my most favorite coffee shop in all of Custer! (which doesn't mean much considering there's only like all of TWO WHOLE COFFEE SHOPS in Custer lol). Anyway, I didn't even get coffee.

"Wow"

I got a bomb-diggity mango smoothie which, while delicious, was probably way more sugar than I should've been enjoying.

Anyway, right after sucking down my smoothie and finishing up my post about my and my wonderful girlfriend's 9 month anniversary, I headed over to aviation training. Today was brutal. 8 hours of seats in butts going over FAA policy, procedures, calculations, yadda yadda yadda.

(how I felt after training today)

But anyway, tomorrow begins the fun stuff! Hands on training and work with the helicopter. queue Top Gun "Danger Zone"

Today, my post is about something totally random. Here goes nothin.

My little sister has this pet. That's not surprising because she's one of those animal freak people that loves all of God's creepy crawly creatures. I swear she could put a collar on a snake and cuddle with it at night.

However, I do have to say that her latest pet is pretty choice. It's dope to the Nth degree, for all you calculus lovers out there. It can simultaneously make your heart swell with love and make your hands bleed profusely. It's none other than an African Pygmy Hedgehog.

Yea, it's pretty much one of the most adorable death rats that I've ever seen. It fits in the palm of your hand and has the capability of ruining your day in a hurry. His name is Lenny. He's pretty grumpy if you try and wake him up from his mid-day naps.

Pygmy Hedgehogs are naturally nocturnal. Of course, this poses a problem when you're trying to sleep and he's up at 2:30 AM putting in miles on his rickety hamster wheel which rattles and squeaks worse than old mattress springs. That's why we've given him a new home in the backyard. Lenny now has his own fenced off corner in our backyard which enables him to dig and burrow like he normally would in the wild, but not be subjected to natural predators like birds of prey and dogs/cats.

Now he can scurry, dig, and run his little heart out at any hour of the night and not wake up the whole household. Of course we still check in on him every day to see how he's doing and feed him a few of his favorite treats... mealworms. (He eats em up like twinkies).

So that's gonna rap it up for tonight's post, guys! If you're ever in Custer, SD, stop by the 1881 Bank Coffee House. Pretty rad and they got the tastiest (and only) Mango smoothie I've ever had in South Dakota.

As always,
Shoot straight and stay safe.

-Mike Knipp