1st April 2024

Happy April Fool's Day! I don't really tend to celebrate it in any way, because I'm not very good at planning, or coming up with creative activities or pranks like that. But I like that it's a day full of potential whimsy, and that it brings to mind the great spaghetti tree hoax of April 1st 1957.

Hedgehog in the Garden

Recently we've had a hedgehog visiting the garden. I am not sure if it is a male hedgehog or a female hedgehog, since it is quite hard to tell, but for the purposes of the story I'm going with he. He's looking a little poorly, but not too bad as he is still moving around and I've caught him digging a little in the ground to catch bugs (of course, I don't make him stop, he can dig as much as he likes). Each day he visits, he's napping in the garden near to the hedge. We give him a dish with water on it, he drinks it for a long time, and then moves to a more sheltered location. I have thought about getting him to a vet, but unfortunately the vet nearest to me is the kind where they generally will not treat wild animals, and instead prefer to euthanise them. I don't think he is sickly enough to need his life ending, he's just a bit thirsty, so I'm hoping that by ensuring he is hydrated, well, ideally we won't need to see him again. However he was really cute, and it was nice to see a hedgehog since they're a rare sight.

Insane to say, but that hedgehog photo was taken from across the garden on my boyfriend's phone. I tried so hard to get a good picture on my phone, but it wouldn't even zoom in far enough. I didn't want to get close to the hedgehog and bother it. I've been thinking about upgrading my phone to a more up-to-date model, and had been unable to decide which phone to choose, but now I'm tempted to choose to get the same kind of phone my boyfriend has, now that I know just how good the photos it can take are.

Hedgehog update from later in the day

Turns out it's a girl hedgehog! Let me explain. The hedgehog came back today, looking worse than it was yesterday, and lying slap bang in the middle of the garden. I was really nervous about this. We gave it some water and wet food this time, but it wasn't really having any of it, and was just shuffling around the garden to follow the sun. Flies kept landing on it which was really upsetting me, and looking online, this is a sign of an unhealthy hedgehog.

So I put on my big girl pants, and struggled my way into the shed to get the thick garden gloves out. I put the hedgehog into a box that was used to deliver cat food, and put it into the garage with a plastic bottle filled with warm water, and researched until I thankfully found a local hedgehog rescue. I asked my boyfriend to telephone the woman who runs the hedgehog rescue, and she turned out to live right around the corner. Why did we not know about this!?!? So he put a towel over the hedgehog, and took it right over there in the box for me.

The woman running the hedgehog rescue, Irene, told him off for not taking the hedgehog sooner. The hedgehog pooped on the way there, and the woman used the poop to confirm that the hedgehog was sick because of a stomach infection. She weighed it (it was too small! Just 300g, apparently that is too small for a hedgehog), and she checked it to make sure it didn't have fly eggs on it. She also let my boyfriend know that it is a girl hedgehog, and gave it an injection of some kind, probably to help it recover from the stomach infection. Then she gave it a fresh blanket, and put it in some hedgehog acommodation to recover safely.

Hopefully the hedgehog will get better now. It was really sweet and tried so hard to pull through. I'm really glad to know that there is a hedgehog rescue so close by, in case this ever happens in the future. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for updates on her hedgehog rescue page on Facebook, and wash these towels that were used by the hedgehog hahaha.

Hedgehog update 2

Updating from my phone so excuse any mistakes please. The hedgehog is now free from all ticks, she's been cleaned off of all bugs, she's warm and safe, and hopefully she will be feeling better soon. The woman at the rescue named her April, very fitting. She's looking very tired (the hedgehog) and there were quite a few things wrong with her health. But I hope now she will feel better soon since she has a safe place to heal and someone looking after her well.