As I walked to the bus stop on Thursday I saw a hedgehog that had been run over on the road that joins my cul-de-sac. I feared it might be Pog!
I had to catch my bus however, and while I was worrying at work I received a phone call from Linda, who cared for Tig, a hedgehog I found last year. She wanted to know if I could release a hedgehog as she had one that was keen to be off now it was healthy.
Of course I said yes!
So I skived off work early, (thanks boss!) and me and my mum went to collect the hedgehog for release!
It was lovely to meet Linda, yet another wonderful person who cares and puts so much time and effort into helping hedgehogs.
She introduced us to an elderly hedgehog called Toothless first.
Linda said you can tell if it's an elderly hedgehog because it will have a pink nose and it's face fur goes more gingery.
She said Toothless was so named because she has hardly any teeth! When she was brought in she was very thin and they found her teeth were very bad and she had an abscess. The worn teeth were another sign that Toothless was an old hedgehog as are her pale claws.
Lucky for Toothless that she was found because Linda mushed up her food and she put on weight and she got the abscess sorted. Now Toothless is enjoying a nice retirement in a carers garden where she is safe and can get easy to eat food.
A little too easy to eat it seems, as Toothless was at Linda's on a diet! She weighs too much now!
Linda said a healthy weight for a hedgehog is 1000grams. :)
Good luck on the diet Toothless and thanks for letting us meet you, I learned a lot about elderly hedgehogs!
Then Linda fetched our hedgehog for release. She didn't have a name, so I have named her Blossom for ease of reference. X3
She very kindly unrolled when Linda moved her from her hutch to the carry box so we could say hello.
Blossom was brought in from a new housing estate where she had wandered looking for food and been picked up in January when all healthy hogs should be in bed!
Now she is healthy again and ready to go. But the new housing estate wasn't suitable for her to return to so that's why Linda contacted me.
We brought Blossom home and waited for evening for her release.
I buried the poor hog that had been killed on the road, I couldn't bear to have to pass it as it got more squashed thinking it might be Pog. ;___;
I decided to release Blossom at the bottom of my estate where she won't have to worry about the roads. She can choose to go down to the flood plain, up to the estate if she wants, mooch about in the woods and scrub or stay in the area I released her with lots of nice grassy places to forage and some good wild areas too.
I set up my camera trap hoping to catch sight of Pog alive and well at home then went off with Blossom about 9.
But not before a quick selfie with her. Thanks Blossom!
I made her a nice hog house with bedding from a sturdy potato box and took food and water and set it all up on the scrubby fringe of some woodland.
Then I left her to it!
Good luck Blossom!
I returned to find the mealworms on my back porch had already been scoffed, but I had set my camera trap up wrong so didn't get a capture of who it was. But at least one of my hedgehogs was safe and well.
Next morning I walked down to see if Blossom had eaten her food. It didn't seem like she had eaten hardly any. But it's good hedgehog habitat so she probably found enough natural food I think. The site looked undisturbed so I'm confident she is doing fine.
I have checked back the last few days to see if she has come back to the box needing food, but there's been no sign. I think she has embraced her freedom and scarpered to find a nice home of her own.
It's a good area so I'm not worried, she will do fine and meet lots of other hogs! :)
Meanwhile, after 2 nights of no one eating the food inside the hedgehog restaurant, I became convinced that it was Pog who had been run over.
I managed to get one capture of Hoggle visiting the back door tho.
But then after feeling miserable the restaurant food has been eaten the last 2 nights.
But as is always the case when I really need the camera trap to work, it has failed to capture anything despite being in the restaurant! >_<"
It might be that Hoggle has found out how to get into the restaurant. But now I have a tiny hope that Pog is ok and had just chosen those days to wander off to the other end of her territory!
I really hope Pog is still alive! >_<"
As if the possibility of loosing Pog wasn't bad enough, coming home on Sunday I noticed another roadkill hedgehog in almost the exact same location as the one on Thursday (and the same location where I picked Tig up from! (Thank goodness I picked him up!) So with a heavy heart I went to collect that one for burial too. It was in the verge and when I scooped it up I realised it had been dead for a fair while as it was all dried out. It must have been uncovered when they mowed the verge.
Still not a good location for hedgehogs in my area! >_<"
And what a rollercoaster of a hedgehoggy week it's been!
Thank you to Linda and Warwickshire Hedgehog Rescue for letting me release a hedgehog, it was perfect timing to brighten my week. And despite the roadkills it is a good area for hedgehogs here!
Everyone please keep your fingers crossed for Pog. I'm trying to figure out what's up with my camera trap so I can hopefully see if it is my ninja Pog visiting the restaurant.
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