Ludo the Rescue Hedgehog

Well, this was unexpected. Although this now happened a good three months ago now, it still shocks me how these animals come into our lives.

After finding Hoggle* in a sorry state, curled up behind a plant pot on our decking back in July 2020 (and releasing Rhea** back in February), I was hopeful to avoid any more poorly creatures. Not because I mind caring for them, which of course I don't, but because we should always hope that they do not need us and can thrive in the wild where they should be.

However, Ludo had different ideas.

One morning when dropping Mr H off at work I turned to leave and spotted something sitting in the middle of the road. A hedgehog! Of course, I was excited to see one and gutted not to have my camera but then I realized the issue. It was long past daylight, the roads were very busy and upon observing from afar the hog seemed exhausted. During this time we'd had a lot of very warm, dry weather and it was very much possible that they were out searching for water.
I slowly approached and it neither moved nor curled up and so after much umming and ahhing we decided it would be best to remove it from the situation to avoid it being hit by a car on these surrounding roads that were already a sad sight of many lost hogs. I should also mention at this point I thought it was a 'he' and we had a look around to see if there were any hoglets around just in case before picking him up.
I had some old pillowcases in my car that we kept for any such wildlife emergencies and Mr H grabbed a box from work. Then I started the journey home slowly with my precious cargo!

* Hoggle the Rescue Hedgehog
** Rhea the Rescue Pigeon

When we arrived home, I placed the box in the garden with some fresh water and hedgehog food while I readied the hutch so they could have more room and I could observe them better. 
While giving them a quick once over during transfer to the hutch I was pretty certain this was a boy and he was a good weight. So I left him to rest, refuel and settle from his probably stressful morning.

After keeping an eye from afar that day and evening, together Mr H and I decided to name him Ludo! Our buddy Hoggle was much smaller and more confident so it seemed fitting that this big timid boy be named in the Labyrinth theme also. 
Ludo had a super short stay with us at the Hallow Manor Rehab (haha) and was released late one evening into our very hog-friendly front garden. We'd seen him that evening pottering around the hutch eating and drinking therefore knew he was ready. I had considered taking him back to where he was found, though with no hoglets to look after and it being a very unsafe area with little in the way of a nice environment for him to thrive in we decided it was best to release him here. 

I am gutted to say that I cannot find any of the photos from his release or much video footage at all from his short stay with us. Though of course, the main thing is his health and safety and we had been so happy to have him revisit in the following weeks. I guess he knew there was water aplenty in our garden!

To end this I feel like I need to say, as I always do, that I would never interfere unless necessary. I do have previous experience and knowledge of wildlife. I always consider options extremely well and consult other channels if I am unsure. There are very few wildlife rescues in my county and with the perils faced those who do take in wildlife are overwhelmed.
That being said, if you find a hedgehog or other wild animal in need please do call your local wildlife rescue if you have one and get them the help they need, you could save a life. In general, make sure you at all times of the year leave out fresh clean water for all our wonderful wildlife and place rocks and/or sticks in it so that smaller visitors can get out if they were to fall in.

Until next time here's a short video of lovely Ludo...

Hoggle the Rescue Hedgehog

Warning for Cuteness Overload!

Say Hi to Hoggle! Last month this little fellow came into our lives, so today I want to share a little about them.

It all started on the 9th of July when Baker (our doggo) kept going to the corner of our decking, sniffing and jumping back because he's such a scaredy-cat. He'd actually been doing this for a couple of weeks and we assumed it was the plant in the plant pot or the fact that another dog lives on the opposite side of that wall...but apparently not. I don't know what made me check this day of all days, but instead of brushing it off as the above excuses, I peeked behind the plant pot to find a little spikey ball.

We have seen hedgehogs in our front garden before, but never the back due to the only entry for them being under our back gate and the fact there aren't exactly many appealing places for them to venture. That along with the fact Baker had been acting weird with that particular area for a little while beforehand and it also was very bright and warm, makes me think they had been stuck there for a little while sadly.
I would never interfere unless necessary, so to be on the safe side I decided to get a box with hay to make them comfortable and popped in some food and water until Mr H got home from work and we could check the hog over properly.

Obviously, me being me I had to take some photos to use as the daily photo for my Project 366 and looking back at them on my laptop one of them concerned me because it looked as if the Hedgehog was burnt slightly on its side. Our neighbour has been lighting fires quite often recently so it was possible it had been caught there and then escaped to our garden for safety.
Later that evening Mr H and I popped out to check the little thing out and see whether we thought it'd be okay to be directly re-released. We were pretty confident that they weren't burnt, however, they had a few little lumps/bumps so we decided to kit out our unused outdoor hutch and observe them for a day or two. We bought a little wooden lodge and filled it with hay, kept a nice fresh supply of water topped up and tried a few different food options. For the next day or two, we didn't see the Hedgehog itself (we go to bed pretty early and it was still light, too early for the little thing to be out and about), though the food was disappearing and healthy poops were appearing.
With everything taken into account, dehydration seems to be one of the biggest issues the hedgehog was facing. It wasn't too underweight but was definitely pretty hungry and although cancer is common in hedgehogs, we came to the conclusion that the bumps seemed as if they had been caused by either a dog or bird attack.

It was approaching the one week mark of our Hoggle rehabbing and I thought it was definitely time to try and get them back to the wild as soon as possible. So the 15th was chosen as release day!

That morning, as I was about to let Baker out for the toilet, I saw movement in the hutch. It was light and had been for many hours so I guessed something wasn't quite right. When I checked I was correct - the bowl of food was empty and the hog was on the hunt for something to fill it's tummy haha. So I ran inside, grabbed some more food and fresh water, as well as my camera of course.
It was such a great coincidence that Hoggle showed their face and gave me an opportunity to give them a proper good look over without needing to physically handle them before the planned release that evening. They were eating and drinking very well and was a lot more stable and speedy when walking around. I even managed to get some really cute video footage that I've included at the bottom of this post, you can hear Hoggle talking away a little too after he heard the neighbour's dog barking.
Don't worry - I have a big lens on my camera and was able to get those close up pictures etc without being too close. 

Happy with how Hoggle was doing, I left them again to rest for the day. We stayed up late (well, later than usual...10pm!) and got everything ready for the release into our front garden. The little log cabin got situated, along with the supply of food and water of course, and I picked up our little pal to carry them out to freedom. This gave us the very last opportunity to survey any injuries which we're doing super well, yay! I didn't mention it earlier in the post but during all of this we weren't sure about the sex of Hoggle, the name being chosen purely because of Labyrinth, so I was surprised when they gave us a little sneak peek of their tummy and we saw they were, in fact, a girl. 
Finally, I popped her down in front of the hide where she ran in to continue her sleep until it got a little darker and I assumed she would leave. The next morning I did go to see if she had left and she had, therefore I used the opportunity to get the hide pushed back further among the shrubbery. Since then I've checked the hide periodically and think she - or a friend - has been visiting because the food has been getting eaten for sure!
Fingers crossed the little lady is doing well. It was such a fantastic experience helping her for a few days, expanding my wildlife care a little since I have mainly only worked with birds previously.
If you find a hedgehog or other wild animal in need please do call your local wildlife rescue if you have one and get them the help they need, you could save a life.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos and have a little watch of the short video below where you can see Hoggle eating, drinking and his moment of release!
Until next time!