Singing hedgehog, part two.

It is going to have to be taped Gattina...It could go viral.

Did you hear Gattina, that Hedgehogs are now officially on the endangered list in the UK ?

A lovely little story , Gattina , well saved !

oh gattina, so glad you found the little chap, hope he just went back to mum and is ok, what a lovely story..

Oh I do love happy endings;o)

Yes, Pimpernel - I remember it was one of the first comments I read just after I joined GoY, and it really shocked me. I love them, and they are such friends to the gardener, so they are always welcome. (Even when they come into our hallway and we find them curled up under the telephone table) I do know that lots of people, thinking to be kind, leave bread and milk out for them. BIG mistake - they are insectivores/carnivores, and milk will not only make them ill, it can kill them. Just keep slug pellets out of your garden, provide safe shelter, and every now and then, if you are sure it won't attract vermin, a little cat or dog food and clean water will make sure any who DO find your garden will want to make it home. Oh, and turn over any burnable garden rubbish BEFORE you make it it into a bonfire. Hey, do you think it could go viral? I shall have to go out and buy a tape recorder.
Seriously, I must try to be more careful to make our property safer for animals, wild or otherwise. The first year we were here, we used to leave water out for stray cats, and our neighbours' ducks used to come into our garden to drink it & bathe in it. We, at the same time, had fixed up a downpipe from the balcony guttering, into a big bucket beneath, to conserve what little rain we were getting. I was wandering up the garden one day and out of the corner of my eye noticed the head of a duck peering over the rim of the bucket. It had obviously fallen in and was quacking plaintively. I pulled it out and off it waddled. What REALLY shocked me was the second duck that the first duck had been balancing on top of, up to it's neck in cold water, and looking half dead. We pulled it out and I thought it was going to die, but we spread it out in the hot sunshine, and eventually it did recover and stagger off, but it did give us a shock. We have a nasty feeling that the poor thing had possibly been in that predicament for well over 24 hours. There are no uncovered buckets or drains any more in the garden, and we thought the sump the hedgehog fell into would never be a problem for any animal to climb out of. We were wrong. I still feel guilty.

Thats a lovely story Gattina, I remember years ago having that feeling when I found one in our pond, it had fallen out of the waterfall during the night and I didn`t find it in time, at least you got to yours and was able to rescue it, hopefully it has survived its ordeal..

I wasn't aware that hedgehogs are on the endangered list, that is a shock. Always a lovely story when someone saves wildlife.

So glad you found it, Gattina. Hope it recovers fully. As for the poor duck! At least you're an animal lover and do your best for them.

Lovely story about the hedgehog and the ducks! We had a similar problem here - We had a narrow strip of ground at the base of the wall holding the meadow back from sliding into our garden which, naturally, was a home for weeds and grass seeding from the meadow plants. Fed up with constantly weeding it, I covered the area with old folded compost bags - black side out - and stood three empty (for the moment!) pots on the bags to keep them in place. Working near there one day I heard a 'scrabbling' sound and traced it to one of the pots which had two 4" wall lizards and a large toad lurking in its depths, obviously drawn in by small snails judging by the amount of crushed and empty shells I also found! Pots now removed and any other empty pots in the garden are laid on their sides!

It seems to me that in general, gardeners tend to be compassionate, gentle people and closer to nature than others might be. Or perhaps we're just a bunch of soppy softies. Pimpernel, I was thinking of uploading the song onto my 'phone as a ringtone. Just thinking, mind you - not sure how to do it. :o)))
Lincslass, don't feel guilty - my little brother had a swimming pool in his garden (much posher than me), neglected to cover it one night and a sheep wandered in and drowned. It was found floating, feet stuck up in the air, the next morning. :-(((((

Poor little baby hedgehog. I'm glad he sang at you for you to find him/her.

So am I, Hywel, so am I.

Oh thats awful, I bet your brother was shocked to find that. We have always given our 2 cats dried food and they have their own little place where they spend most of their time and i often used to see a hedgehog in there eating their food.

Awww, Gattina, I love your stories about the little singing hedgehogs, they're so magical, in contrast, those poor ducks! It's like something from Aesop's Fables, the fox and the goat! Lol! You must have a very peaceful aura around you to have gained the trust of all these animals!

Rose, we have so many semi-feral cats we couldn't afford to feed them anything else, and it seems to make quite a good diet for spikeys as well. The cellar where any of our cats can shelter has high-up shelves which the cats like to sleep on, and piles of firewood and kindling down below where all our spikeys drag shredded plastic bags and cat-food bags to make nests. It couldn't be called cosy, exactly, but it's a lot better than being out in the open fields when it's -17° . All the cats are fattening up for winter now - they just eat and eat. Our surveyor came by the other day, and spying one that during the summer had been slight and lean, but was now getting very heavy, he chortled "Dio mio, che buon arrosto!" (My goodness, what a lovely roast!") Said roast left very fast.
Naah, Libet, we're softies and they know a good thing when they see it

Is there nothing they won't eat!! Lol! I think we're all softies at heart Gattina!!