|
Post by spaceflower on Jul 24, 2014 23:46:28 GMT
When there is 30 degrees Celsius, I want the door to the deck open as long as possible, I don't close it before I go to bed. The rest of the family was asleep. I had been watching the TV so the door to the rest of the house was closed. But the door to the garden was open. Only a table lamp was litl.
Suddenly I had the sound of something entering from the deck. Oh, was it really true, maybe I was just imagining it. I looked and saw something dark on the floor. It was standing still. It was not a cat, it was smaller than a cat. And bigger than a mouse. I was afraid that i was a rat, a rather fat rat. It was about the size of a big guinea pig and darkish brow.
My heart was throbbing. I am really not a physically brave person and I am totally terrified of rats. If I tried to chase it out, it might run under the sofa. I could not go out and wake my husband without passing the wild animal.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jul 24, 2014 23:51:39 GMT
Well what was it?
|
|
|
Post by spaceflower on Jul 25, 2014 0:51:07 GMT
I turned on the floor lamp and looked. I could not see any tail but a pointed nose. It was this animal: It was a relief that it was not a rat. But still there was the problem, how to get it out of my living room. It is funny, if I see a hedgehog outside, I think it is a cute animal. But now I found it terrifying. Usually not seen in the day but in dawn and dusk. I took some steps towards it. It scurried away the same direction it came from. I hoped it would go out again. But it stayed by the threshold. I had not been to high coming in but was obviously too high getting out. I took a newspaper and tried to shove it out. It sort of shoke and hissed. It was of course terrified itself. And hedgehogs are not known to be very intelligent. The species is 15 million old. What to do? I felt kind of panicked. I dared not go out of the living room to wake up hubby. I dared not touch it with my hands, I was afraid of its thorns. Then I found a pair of garden gloves. I shoved the hissing hedgehog over the threshold. It was out at last and I closed the door. But I felt very upset. For a long time I had the feeling that it was still inside.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jul 25, 2014 1:32:00 GMT
I like hedgehogs though they do tend to harbour fleas. I hope you left it some food
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Jul 25, 2014 8:06:00 GMT
You can pet hedgehogs without getting hurt. Their needles aren't that sharp really. But yes, they are rather flea-ridden as we (or mostly our dog) found out.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Jul 25, 2014 8:11:37 GMT
Honey is fascinated by hedgehogs. She occasionally gets near to one and gets a pricked nose. We saw one a couple of nights back and it was running so fast with its tiny legs that it just looked like it was hovering across the road.
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Jul 25, 2014 8:23:37 GMT
Hedgehogs are becoming quite rare here, so I try to leave them alone as much as possible, but it sometimes can be difficult to pull two excited dogs off a poor quivering ball of spikes. Not that they can do much harm, but I doubt they benefit from the spike in blood pressure.
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Jul 25, 2014 17:10:58 GMT
I read somewhere recently that some people are keeping them as pets now
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Jul 25, 2014 17:23:44 GMT
I think the pet ones are the African variety, which are a little smaller and lighter. I would certainly love to have one.
|
|
|
Post by spaceflower on Jul 25, 2014 22:43:15 GMT
I like hedgehogs though they do tend to harbour fleas. I hope you left it some food Certainly not, I don't want to encourage it to return. But we have a bowl of water for it in the garden, since it so hot now. The pet variant is called Four-toed hedghog. It is forbidden to have a wild hedgehog as a pet (at least in Sweden).
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Jul 26, 2014 7:33:33 GMT
You can't have the European ones as pets here either, but most people do encourage them in their garden, not just because they are cute, but also because they eat snails and other undesirables.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Jul 26, 2014 11:37:04 GMT
A lot of the decline in the hedgehog population is due to the fact that so many gardens now have impenetrable (to the hedgehog) boundaries around them and that is where the majority of their food would be. Another downside to everyone's anti-sociability and hostility to the rest of the world in general!
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Jul 26, 2014 11:51:02 GMT
And the fact that they defend themselves by rolling into a ball, also against cars.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jul 26, 2014 14:34:13 GMT
A lot of the decline in the hedgehog population is due to the fact that so many gardens now have impenetrable (to the hedgehog) boundaries around them and that is where the majority of their food would be. A hedgehog hole is a thing that people talk about including in their fencing. On the other hand some people appear to hate neighbourhood cats and foxes and will try to seal off their gardens against them.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Jul 26, 2014 18:59:03 GMT
Yes, pesky wildlife ruining our otherwise idyllic lifestyles and infesting our planet!
|
|