▲ Small, but perfectly formed: at one week old,


baby hedgehogs—known as hoglets—still have closed eyes and ears. The collective noun? An “array” of hedgehogs


most of the money for his hedge- hog sanctuary generated by website sales of his own designs of hedgehog hibernation boxes and garden wildlife feeders, as well as occasional donations from the public. Taking care of as many prickly guests as appear on the doorstep is not a cheap enterprise. Ron burns through petrol as he travels up to 30 or 40 miles round Herefordshire to collect injured hogs. His phone number is on his website, at the local vet’s and with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, so he gets frequent calls from the public re- porting sightings of hedgehogs that have been hit by traffic or have suffered other misadventures (including getting caught in discarded food containers). And then there’s the cost of specialist milk for youngsters, worming medication and food. The Pedigree Chum that adult hedgehogs thrive best on costs about 50p a day per hog, and given that there are often up to 12 in his care at any one time, it soon mounts up.


Without the enthusiastic support of Ron’s partner Lynne and her two 17-year- old daughters, as well as the local vet’s, Marches Veterinary Group, it would be virtually impossible to continue this work, given the level of care required by some of the arrivals. A recent call-out resulted in the col- lection of a hedgehog with a seriously damaged and infected leg that had to be put to sleep immediately. But if the phone call had been made sooner, the hedgehog might have been saved. “The people who found her waited


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