We have always had hedgehogs in the garden. They wander down from the canal along the row of hawthorn trees at the back of the garden. Huge snuffling, snorting noises can be heard in the spring when they are finding a partner.
Last summer I was delivering a knitting pattern to a friend and as a I walked along the pavement to her house, I found hedgehog in the middle of the pathway. It was early morning, but the sun was getting quite hot, even then, so I picked him up and placed him under the hedge, thinking he would wander off.
I went back to my car, but as I drove past, I noticed, he hadn't moved. I retrieved him and placed him in a large shopping bag I had in the boot of the car.
I rang the Hedgehog Protection people and took him home. He enjoyed a meal of cat food (I have two cats), and promptly scurried up the garden path and into the greenery. We already have a wooden hedgehog house at the end of the garden, since one decided to move into our compost bin for the winter, scattering soil all over the garden and the lawn.
The Hedgehog people came and brought another one with them, as he was looking for a home. My garden, apparently, with all the bushes and shrubs makes a safe sheltered retreat, with an escape route under the hawthorn trees to the canal bank.
Apparently their favourite food, apart from chocolate biscuits is mealworms mixed with cheap cat biscuits. Please do not feed any hedgehogs that you may see passing by with bread and cows milk. Contrary to rumour, this can kill the little creatures.
I leave a dish of food in the garden surrounded
by four bricks with a slab on top to prevent cats
and other animals eating it. We took these
pictures over the Christmas holidays.
