One very cold night in November 2009, the wind was blowing and there was not a soul out in the biting midnight air..all except a tiny hedgehog, scrabbling around in the garden eating a morsel of peanut butter sandwich put out for the fox.
This was not normal, he should have gone into hibernation at least a month ago, and judging by his size he wouldn't make it through the winter alive.
I took him in and popped him on the kitchen scales, 200 grams, he would need to be at least 500-600 to make it through hibernation, so in he came, wrapped up in a blanket and popped in a cat basket in the spare room for assessment.
Turns out he was quite ill, his poo was green and he was wheezing and coughing, it would be touch and go..After a few phone calls I was in the car the next day with my new charge.
After 45 minutes we arrived at the vet, there was snow on the ground and a long queue, but he kindly called me in, looked at the young hoglet, and after much assessment and weighing sent me off with medication to treat the lungworm. I would need to come back later for some more he said..and a few weeks later off we trundled for more treatment.
By Christmas time the young lad was doing well and growing steadily on his diet of mealworms, cat biscuits and water. He came out each night and after snuffling up my dressing gown sleeve he would take to settling down for a snooze in the hood of my gown. After a little exercise exploring the lounge he would then go back to his rabbit run in the spare room, the only spare room, and the same spare room that my parents stayed in over the Christmas period! (They're used to this with me and have encouraged the care of animals since childhood so they felt quite privileged to be sharing their room with a little snuffling hog).
After a short period of time it was decided no more handling as he needed to get used to being alone as he would in the wild. Besides it was established he was now well on the road to being fit and healthy so there was no need for such regular inspections on his health.
By the springtime he was now a big lad..all of 900 grams(!)and the time had come to find him a forever and safe home. I could not release him back in my garden as the
lungworm, foxes, and badgers posed too high a risk and despite seeing them all feed happily together I did not want to risk that.
In time, and after discovering that sadly nowhere is safe for a hedgehog these days I did what was best for hogly and found a lady in the west country who has a garden where the hedgehogs visit and are fed on a regular basis, there are no slug pellets, no badgers, and no roads nearby.
I can report that 2 years down the line hogly is thriving after having spent the past winter hibernating in a drawer in her garage...he quickly made a friend and this year his 'friend' came wandering down her garden path with 3 babies in tow! A proud dad?' I hope so.
1 out of 5 hogs makes it to adulthood, and only 1 in 5 make it through their 1st year of hibernation; some make it to 2 years old.. but the average life expectancy of a hedgehog in the wild is 1-3 years, in captivity they can live as long as 10.
It is estimated that by 2025 in the UK if the current trend continues in the hedgehog's decline the hedgehog will be completely extinct in the wild. 50,000 hedgehogs a year are killed on the roads, many are poisoned by slug pellets (ALL garden pesticides are a killer, even the 'animal friendly' ones), garden bonfires, horrific injuries from strimmers and other garden machinery, land clearance for building houses, and other man-made attrocities..
This one made it, but the story all too often is so different.
'Hogly'
