Thursday, April 08, 2010

IT IS BALL CURLING

Ah Bless! The wee hedgehogs being looked after in a refuge all over the long cold Winter, were so well fed, they were far  too fat to curl up into balls to protect themselves from predators.

What do you do with clinically obese hedgehogs? You put them on a diet of course. They are now svelte enough to do what hedgehogs should be able to do. They will be safe to let out into the big bad wildlife world, hopefully, where there is lots of countryside between them and roads.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hedgehogs are definately one of my favourite creatures and it's always a delight to find one in my garden...an overweight one must indeed find life difficult.

ZACL said...

Definitely Beatrix Potter-ish. This is a case of the milk of human kindness stupidly overflowing. Just as well some sensible individual noticed the plight of the rescued animals and put right the staff's over-zealousness.

TG said...

I love hedgehogs! In Slovenia, near my house, we always had some around autumn. They would sneak around the plate, where we used to put cat food and eat it. So mum decided to stop putting cat food outside, she feared they would pass fleas to the cats, something that's believed in my country.

And years ago, we used to have a big fierce dog. We had to build a kennel during most of the day. One evening around 11pm, he was barking like crazy. I wondered what happened and went outside. What I saw was a bit funny. Somehow a hedgehog found its way inside and our dog tried to bite it, but he stung himself, because the hedgehog looked like a ball of spines. Poor fellow was tossed and kicked around the kennel like a ball. I went inside and used a shovel and put him in a basket. I took him in the house to check, if he was hurt. To my surprise, he wasn't. But our dog's snout was a bit bloody. I released the hedgehog after a while and hoped that it was a good lesson for both of them :P

ZACL said...

What a lovely descriptive story MKL. Your experience demonstrates very clearly why hedgehogs must be able to protect themselves by curling into a ball. If they are too fat to curl up, they are in big trouble.

Your mum's belief about hedgehogs and fleas is one I have also heard. I think it might be true. However, cats also carry fleas, lots of them. Cats have to be deloused sometimes. then of course, cats also need worming. Another story!