Where Am I ?
Posted By Judith on 23rd August 2023
A few weeks ago I wrote about how I’ve become a volunteer for a local hedgehog rescue charity, ‘Shelley Hedgehogs’. If you’re interested in reading about their work I can recommend their Facebook page, which is updated regularly with photos and progress reports.
All the hedgehogs have names and are released back into the wild (or secure gardens if disabled) to live out the rest of their lives as naturally as possible.
At the moment I’m pretty much a hedgehog taxi service but in the next few weeks, I’m going to do some training with a view to becoming more hands-on.
Rescue hogs come in all shapes and sizes, some are adults who have been run over or strimmed, but quite a lot are abandoned/orphaned hoglets, some are so small they would fit comfortably into the palm of your hand.
Some people call them ‘conker hogs’ because they look like they’ve been popped into an empty conker case a bit like a hermit crab into a shell.
This is a little girl I collected from Barnsley a few weeks ago.
Picture courtesy of ‘Shelley Hedgehogs’.
All the ones I’ve helped so far have been very compliant.
A few days ago I was asked to collect a couple of youngsters from an address in Wakefield an area that I’m not really familiar with, so off I went accompanied by my usually trusty sat nav.
I found the address without too much difficulty and grabbed the shoe box out of my boot that I always carry for these occasions.
I collected the 2 adolescent hogs, probably siblings, and popped them in the box. I soon discovered a shoe box was a mistake on this occasion as the lid is not very secure!
I began the return journey but hadn’t been driving for very long when I realised 2 things:
1. I had no idea where I was and neither had my sat nav (who didn’t seem to recognise one-way systems)
and
2. One of my little charges had escaped from the box. I could see the blanket that I’d placed over the lid moving ominously, not the sort of thing you need when trying to navigate an unfamiliar city centre.
There wasn’t much I could do at that point but as the movement seemed to stop I realaxed slightly, then I felt something brush against my right ankle!
It could only be an escaped hog. How had it got there without me seeing it? Under the seat presumably! Had they both escaped? Where was the other one?
Because I have short legs my seat is as far forward as possible so I actually couldn’t see exactly what was going on.
Then something brushed my left ankle, which was even worse because I feared I might squash it under the clutch pedal when I changed gear!
I drove as carefully as possible and after what seemed like an eternity came upon a lay-by and pulled in.
First I checked the shoe box. To my relief hedgehog number 2 was still there, so I was able to push my seat back without fear of squishing him. Having done that I could clearly see ‘Houdini Hog’ sitting between my feet obviously wondering where on earth he was, I knew how he felt!!
Fortunately, by this time my sat nav had come to her senses, and by some miracle I was going the right way.
Having returned ‘Houdini’ to the safety of the box, the remainder of the journey was uneventful except for him trying to dig himself out again. Unsuccessfully this time as I put something heavy on the lid.
So there we were, 3 lost souls on a Saturday night in Wakefield!
But I needn’t worry.
Google knows exactly where I am. Here you can see me on ‘Streetview’, eating a sandwich in my garden!!
