I had some gloves handy and was able to enact a nifty rescue just before Bailey the dog attempted to help. We put all our other topics on ice and learnt a lot about hedgehogs.
Our spiky chap was very small and as a nocturnal beast wouldn't normally be seen sniffing around the climbing frame at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We weighed him and he was well below the 500g needed to hibernate.
I remember late night hedgehog visits to our back door when we were small and we always put out cat food, bread and milk. It seems unwise to trust any advice from the 80s so I was pleasantly surprised to read that cat food is still the best thing to offer hedgehogs - but unsurprisingly milk and bread are now a no-no.
Hedgewig dined on the finest cat food - the cat is a fussy madam so it's the posh stuff. Why any cat needs something that describes itself as 'deli' is beyond me. This is the same cat that ate half a baby bird this week. Evil, yes. Fussy, faking it. The cat said hello to Hedgewig (although roughly translated I think it was: why are you eating my fancy food?) and got her nose spiked. "It's not funny kids, it's learning". Okay it was quite funny.
Hedgewig was a noisy eater and after a meal liked to tip over his water bowl, poo in as many places as possible and then try and scale the sides of his spacious box. We tried to work out how close we could get before he smelt or saw us. Turns out the answer is very close - hedgehogs have poor eyesight and although their sense of smell is excellent the boys and I were no match for the heady aroma of cat food (phew). He wasn't bothered about us at all as it happens and I'm never sure whether to be flattered or offended when deemed to be zero threat.
K&W enjoyed doing some research. I didn't realise spines are actually hollow hairs and there are about 5000 of them (googled not counted). After a good hour of concentration it degenerated into looking for the cutest picture of a hedgehog we could find. Winner: baby hedgehog (called a hoglet!!) in a tea cup. Highly commended: Hedgehog curled up with a cat.
Tiggiewinkles, the wonderful wildlife hospital, took him in. I had to sign an agreement that I wouldn't insist on having him back which seems fair enough (finders keepers doesn't apply to wild animals) but I hope we'll find time to pop back in to see how he's doing.
We weren't planning to serve him up for tea - this is our little guy on the scales:
