A Springs woman runs a Harry Potter-themed hedgehog breeding business.

Before the night-vision camera and the custom odometer and the weekly newsletter, Jason Odell just liked looking at hedgehogs.

“I don’t know what got into me,” he said. “But I started seriously getting on a hedgehog fix.”

The Instagram scrolling came first. Then the doodles. Just for fun and for something to do during the coronavirus pandemic, Odell put his “hedgiedoodles” — cartoonish drawings of the critters — on Redbubble.com, a site that helps independent artists sell their creations. People bought masks and T-shirts adorned with the cartoons.

Soon, drawing them wasn’t enough. Odell got on a wait list. Then he got a call from a breeder. There was a hedgehog for him.

By June 2020, he brought little Lemmy home to Colorado Springs. That is not where Odell’s hedgehog fix ended.

As he got acquainted with the nocturnal creature, Odell got curious about what he couldn’t see during Lemmy’s waking hours in his cage.

“You drop all this money on them and then you wonder what the heck they’re doing at night,” he said.

He read that some hedgehogs spend nights running constantly in their wheels, all those cycles adding up to several miles. “Three or four miles? I just don’t see how that’s possible,” he remembers thinking. “I can’t even fathom this.”

He wanted to test the theory. Odell rigged his hedgehog’s wheel up with a digital odometer. The next morning, when he went to check if the contraption worked, the number on the wheel counter shocked him.

The total — 11,707 revolutions — probably wouldn’t mean much to anyone else, but Odell knew that was a lot. Using a little bit of geometry, Odell came up with an equation to convert that number into miles. It revealed Lemmy ran nearly 6 miles overnight.

“I had to do the calculations like three times to make sure I didn’t screw it up,” Odell said. “I just thought it was crazy.”

To understand what he did next, it’s helpful to know that Odell has a PH.D. in biology.

He decided to track Lemmy’s runs every night. He’s done so since Sept. 7, 2020.

And he’s gotten very nerdy about it. Each month, he makes a “Lemmy Wheel Activity” chart showing his hedgie’s high and low mileage days. He calculates Lemmy’s monthly average as well as total distance.

This is why Odell knows, at any given moment, how many recorded miles Lemmy has logged. As of mid-august, it was more than cumulative 1,800 miles, which equal about 155 miles per month.

“I have that inquisitive experimental nature,” he said. “That’s just how I’m wired.”

What does he find so fascinating about this experiment?

“This is a tiny little creature,” Odell said, adding that Lemmy

weighs about 350 grams. “The thought of a little critter running 4 or 5 miles in a night blows me away.”

Plus, he’ll admit, he needed something to stay busy. Now that he works as a full-time photographer and photo tour guide, the pandemic left Odell without many work opportunities.

“So you’ve discovered my secret quarantine project,” he says to people who ask about his hedgehog activities. “Or maybe it’s my midlife crisis project.”

Knowing of the internet’s love for hedgehogs, Odell made an Instagram account for Lemmy to post photos and running stats. And he invited others to join what Odell calls the “Hedgehog Running Club.”

After launching in February, the club has more than 50 members representing places all over the country.

Each Thursday, the human participants track their hedgehog’s mileage to send to Odell, who then makes a spreadsheet ranking the little runners.

A recent chart shows Bernie as the “top hog” with 8.36 miles and Mochi at the bottom with just a tick above zero miles.

Some hedgies are lazier than others.

The data can be found on runhedgierun.com, where Odell blogs updates each week. It’s also where you can buy “The Hedgierun digital pet odometer” for $29.99. It comes with instructions on how to calculate mileage.

It’s not like Odell is getting rich off selling those devices. He just wants to give potential running club members a way to run the numbers.

But that’s not the only point of the club, which the founder says is “not a competition.”

“It’s more like a loose association of people who share a common love of hedgehogs and who love to socialize,” Odell said. “And they take pride in their critter.”

For Odell, 49, who lives alone and works from home, his group of hedgie friends have become a sort of family. Together, the humans and their hedgehogs celebrate milestones and grieve over ---the bad stuff.

The weekly run club is often dedicated to a cause, whether that’s in memory of a hedgehog that passed away or is recovering from surgery.

This summer, they gathered on Zoom for Lemmy’s birthday party. Among several presents that came in the mail, Odell was gifted a whiskey glass etched with the picture of a hedgehog and the words, “Lemmy’s dad.”

The unlikely community has grown out of an odd, yet whimsically feel-good corner of social media.

If anyone ever needs a pickme-up, Odell says that’s what hedgehog photos are for. “It’s like a timeline cleanser,” he said.

Just go to Lemmy’s Instagram for a quick cleansing.

You’ll see photos of Lemmy sticking his tongue out, eating pancakes or resting on Odell’s shoulder. Captions refer to Odell as his “hooman” and fellow hedgehogs as “frens.” Videos taken with a night-vision camera show snippets of Lemmy’s performance during the run club. Watching his little legs scurry, commenters cheer Lemmy on, saying, “You don’t run Lemmy, you fly!” and “Feel the burn!”

Odell describes his hedgehog as a “grumpy boi,” but likes to imagine Lemmy is happiest running in the dark. And a happy hedgehog makes for a happy dad.

“I’m just trying to enjoy it,” Odell said. “I want to build some community, do a little good and spread some hedgie love.”