An evening visit

26 June 2009

Yesterday evening Mum spotted a hedgehog at the end of our drive, just ambling along. I went outside to say hello as it headed down the pavement and into the road. To keep it safe I accompanied the hedgehog on its way. We were in the middle of the road when a car appeared around the corner. I stopped it coming any further and mowing down me and the ‘hog with a – perhaps slightly over-officious – raise of my hand, the driver being happy to stop when she saw who was crossing. The hedgehog had now given up on the idea of going much further and so I tried to scoot it across the road with my bare foot, but it turns out that hedgehogs don’t slide very well. Dad then appeared with a pair of oven gloves and scooped up the ball of spines out of the way.

We took it into the back garden to play with for a little while, taking photos and watching it scurry about with surprising speed. I like to think that it then spent the night in my vegetable patch clearing it of any remaining slugs and bad beasts. Or, if it didn’t, that the thunderstorm that followed that night washed them all away instead.