One of the best ways to spend a Monday morning

This is a hedgehog called Snuffles. Snuffles and Holly are both rescue hedgehogs. Snuffles has a mucus problem which leaves her susceptible to infections and poor Holly lost a leg as a baby, probably from a strimmer. Snuffles is the more outgoing of the two, being older, and was very inquisitive. They were brought to an event by Riverside Animal Centre who do a great job rescuing wild animals as well as domestic ones. The event was an educational one for local children.

There is going to be a happy ending for these two: they will be released into an enclosed garden with high walls where they will be free to explore but will still be brought to the hospital for check ups and monitored by the owner of the garden. Normally the centre only treat wild animals that they think will be able to survive in the wild but these two will still need some long term care, Holly to make sure she doesn't gain too much weight and cause problems for her leg stump and Snuffles for her mucus problem.

Hedgehogs have declined significantly in recent years. I've never actually seen one in the wild, which is sad. They are threatened by cars, litter and not being able to travel between gardens, amongst other things. The main take home lessons are to be very careful when putting out rubbish and recycling or putting cut off plastic bottles on plants as hedgehogs are curious little things and go into everything nose-first so they can get their heads stuck. Netting is also dangerous for them. If you crush tins and bottles they can't get stuck so easily but best to keep them out of reach. Also if you can have a hedgehog-sized gap under/between fences, hedgehogs can have space to travel through and find food and meet other hedgehogs in other gardens.

It was a very enjoyable morning and rather different to my normal Monday mornings. Unfortunately I had to go back to my normal job afterwards. If only it wasn't near impossible to make a career out of wildlife photography...

Balled up hedgehogs are very cute.

Snuffles and Holly snuggling for warmth.

Close up, hedgehog quills are amazing.

I'm afraid it's unlikely that tomorrow's blip will be as exciting as this.