Hedgehog Happiness

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25 June 2010 at 22:37 ·

I’ve just found a hedgehog under a sagebush in the back garden - Matilda acted as a pointer looking pointedly and the bush so that I saw it move and went to investigate.

I took out the cat food bowl with the stuff they hadn't eaten, and got some snails out of my brown recycling bin (any I find I put in to go to the great compost heap in the sky - or wherever the bins go)

Every now and again we have a hedgehog visiting the Chateau Midden estate.

The first time I was aware of this was back in 1992 when the back door blew open one gusty evening, shortly after Phil died, and it came in to eat the catfood.

Seeing it cheered me up no end. 

A couple of years later Middlesister, visiting while we were waiting for one of the boys to be born, was having a sly evening fag sitting under the bower at the end of the garden.  She heard a scraping noise and there was a hedgehog coming out of a hole in the bottom of the garage door.  Fester once found one hibernating in there under all his collecting stuff.

Last summer, when I heard and saw we had a visitor, I started putting out rejected catfood for the hedgehog who included us in its rounds.  However this was mostly consumed by Jessicat, who is still making efforts to join our household, so I stopped.

 

A little while ago, driving into our street, I was sad to see what looked like the remains of a hedgehog by the side of the road.

 

A couple of nights ago as it was overcast and a little humid, I went out on a snail hunt.

My torch caught something sitting very still under the apple trees where the birdfeeders hang and bits drop out.

A little hedgehog

I'd guess it was about 6 inches long, and it has the whole summer to fatten up.

I was delighted but didn't want to disturb it so turned off my torch before galloping back into the house and bellowing "HEDGEHOG!" up the stairs.

 

In July 2007 tidying the garden we found this little hedgehog, curled up asleep.  I wanted Thunderthighs to see one close up.            We returned her to a dark, quiet corner behind the compost heap.