Fangio; The full story

I discovered Fangio (pictured above) last Friday, early in the morning, whilest out for a walk in my wheelchair. I'd gone out to try to take some autumn themed animal shots. I'm making a calender of British wildlife throughout the year to sell in aid of ME research via http://www.photobox.co.uk/content/share?osid=pukbs130 hopefully. I needed one last photo to complete it, Oct

I was just complaining about the lack of any animals, wild or domestic, to photograph when my Mum pointed out a hedgehog snuffling about on the bank by the cemetry. We went on a hedgehog workshop last
year, where we learnt that any hedgehogs out during the day are in trouble, so we decided we'd better rescue it. Apart from the fact that hedgehogs are nocturnal so if one is about during the day its a sure sign something funny is going on, even if there isn't anything wrong with it there very soon will be. If out during daytime they'll get infested with flystrike and lice.

Mum ran off to borrow a cardboard box to put her in leaving me alone with Fangio. After taking a few snaps I decided to pick her up before she disappeared into the hedge. She was a very lightweight, lighter than Barney the smaller of my two guinea pigs. She instantly curled up into a ball, spines bristling. I stayed vy still so as not to alarm her furthur. After a few seconds she stuck her pixie-like snout out and started sniffing me in a puzzled manner. She was ob wondering why I wasn't attempting to eat her. She'd just decided the danger had passed and was unrolling when my Mum arrived. We plopped her into a Doc Martains before she had a chance to make a dash for freedom off my lap.

We took her home, gave her a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel, and phoned round the local hedgehog carers. Unfortunatly they all seemed to be full and we only got answer machines. We gave her some Felix and a shallow dish of water. You have to be careful giving poorly/stressed hedgehogs water as they will attempt to drown themselves under stress. After the food had only been greeted with a breif snuffle and then
ignored, we started to get a bit worried. We finally managed to get hold of an hedgehog carer in Ipswich who reccommended we take her to Mildenhall vets, a vets practice in our nearest town. They are particularly good with hedgehogs apparently Upon examination it was discovered that, though very feighsty, she only weighed 100g. Hedgehogs have to be at least 600 to hibernate and with winter approaching Fangio wouldn't survive the months ahead. She would have to remain in captivity. Unfortunately it was against the
vets practice rules to keep her but the man (Alex) in Ipswich offered her a place at his.

Only one problem; he was having a fundraiser the next day so would be unable to collect her. We arranged to meet his wife at the Moterway services on the way to Ipswich. We did get to meet Alex as he came with his wife. He is a big man with a beard and biker t-shirt. He examined her and said she was nice and fat, the way he liked to see them so at least her outlook is good

I'm guessing she was about three weeks old. Hedgehogs often have a litter later in the year if its fine, and with global warming, they now keep having them as late as early Nov. This doesn't give them long enough to grow let alone fatten up for the winter, and they often get abandoned as their Mother goes into hibernation. Hedgehogs are now an endangered species so every hoglet counts