One evening during the summer my neighbour knocked on the door to say he’d found a baby hedgehog on his front drive. As he knew we fed them in our garden he thought we’d know what to do about it!
When we went to investigate, we found the little fellow wandering
around on the front lawn, disorientated and unsteady on his feet. We decided the
best thing to do was ‘overnight’ him in the hedgehog house we have in our
garden. In the morning we could call the local wildlife hospital for advice. So I
carefully tucked him up in some fresh hay, put down some food and water and we kept
our fingers crossed that he’d be okay until the next morning.
During the night I woke up remembering that I’d recently
read an article in the local newspaper about a new Hedgehog Hospital
Sadly, when he arrived a short while later, the little
hoglet was curled up in a tiny ball and appeared to be lifeless. Andrew explained
that even though we’d done all the right things, babies can
deteriorate very rapidly and the quicker he could get him on a heated pad and start
syringe feeding him goats’ milk the better his chances of survival.
I told him we were going away on holiday the next morning but
we would really love to know how he was getting on when we got back. He
explained that they always like to return ‘patients’ to their original surroundings
so he would be in touch again in a few weeks.
Sure enough a few days after arriving home we had a letter
through the post saying ‘Bill’ (the name they’d given him!) had survived and
was now 115g in weight and would soon be ready to "come home". Also included with the letter
was a copy of his ‘hospital record’ charting his weekly progress and highlighting
his excellent nesting skills and very healthy appetite!
So, the following evening we arranged for ‘Bill’ to be
released back into our garden. Andrew explained that although he would remember
his surroundings we may not see him again for a while as hedgehogs are nomadic
and can travel up to 4 miles a night in search of food and a mate. To make sure we’d recognise him when he did return
he’d painted some white nail varnish onto some of his spikes.
It’s been several weeks now since Bill’s release and as yet
we’ve not seen him amongst the several other hedgehogs that visit us each
evening. However, I’m confident that one day when we look out the window one
very special little hedgehog will be their enjoying his evening meal...
