The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle or How My Dog Learned to Avoid Hedgehogs

Once upon a time there was a dog. Her name was Maple. Maple is a fox terrier and fox terriers like to hunt....

Massive. Must have weight 2 pounds.

Cute little face

Last Saturday night our dog went out into the back yard and after a while started digging in the garden and refused to come back inside. Other people out there lucky enough to have some experience with terriers know that this sort of behavior usually means they're hunting. This hypothesis was confirmed after she reluctantly returned to the house with blood all over her mouth and paws. After checking to make sure she wasn't the one bleeding I bravely sent my husband out into the dark and rainy back yard to dispose of whatever rat or mouse she caught. Poor Craig didn't quite know what he was dealing with. The backyard is very dimply lit and the candle he was using as a torch didn't penetrate the back reaches of the yard very well. After nudging what he presumed to be a weird rock or gnarl of wood out of the way he informed me that there was no animal out there. Sure that escape from the jaws of our mighty hunter was impossible, I joined him in the search for the poor unfortunate creature.
     "I don't think this is an animal" he said "it's covered with leaves."
     "Babe, that's a hedgehog." I replied
After bravely using William's toy gardening tools to lift the prickly ball of rage (the size of a small watermelon) into Maple's kennel (she was NOT amused) Craig called the DSPCA. The vet was surprised that we were more concerned about the hedgehog than the dog (clearly not a lot of foxies at their clinic!). After explaining that the dog was fine and we were certainly more worried about the poor hedgie the vet told us to give the hedgehog some dog kibble and water and to call another number for the wild animal vet in the morning. In the morning all the food was gone and the little hedgie was wandering around the kennel begging for more. He ate the second serving of food too. Piglet. I couldn't find any blood on him or in the kennel at all and he seemed fit as a fiddle. As we couldn't get hold of the wildlife vet and he seemed pretty healthy I let him go in the woods across the road from us because I thought keeping him in a box any longer would probably do more harm than good.Will got a good look at it before we returned it to the wilds of suburbia. I think he thought for a minute that we got him a hedgehog for his birthday. Maple certainly would have been happy with that.