So, Jill, what did you do on this damp and rather autumnal Saturday evening?
Well, R and I drove half way across the Vale, stopping en route to buy a bag of cat kibble, collected two hedgehogs from the Vale Wildlife Hospital, and spent £40 on one of their wooden hedgehog houses because R thought it looked a lot cosier than the one he’d spent half the afternoon fashioning out of a plastic stacking crate and a cardboard box.
Then we squelched round the garden looking for the perfect site for the hedgehog house, eventually deciding that it would be most sheltered under the weeping ash tree, and we’ve put the hedgehogs inside it with the entrance blocked up, and left them alone to acclimatise.
What happens next?
At 9.30pm, when it’s getting properly dark, we’ll go and remove the piece of wood that we’ve used to block up the entrance, replacing it with the wooden tunnel that came with the house, and we’ll put down a dish of kibble and a dish of water.
And then?
And then we just have to hope that they like it – and each other – enough to want to stay.
And how are you feeling now?
Well, I’m a bit snuffly, actually – I think I might have a bit of something in my eye.
Oh dear. Pollen, probably.
Yes, that’ll be it. I’m sure it’s just pollen or something….
