Popped over to see Virginia this afternoon, one to catch up on Nikki and two, to take her two snuggle pads for the wildies - I thought my days were busy but in reality nothing compared to what our wildie carer's days are like.
Had chance to have a catch up and run through things for future fund raising events, hopefully, Virginia will be able to come to some of the local ones with her wildies and she has also offered to go into our local schools and do an assembly about our native hogs - she asks the school if the pupils can bring in a tin of cat food or dog food which is then used to feed the wildies under her care.
Then, the phone rang, the poor woman was trying to get a word in edgeways with a person who had a hedgehog in their garden and then didn't and then had put a cardboard box on top of it to keep the rain off it, we were all ready to go along and collect the hoggie when the phone went and this time we got a different person on who told us they were not sure if the hoggie was still in their garden as they had left the gate open the previous night so that the hoggie could get out of their garden - I don't mind admitting I had a chuckle but whilst Virginia was on the phone, a young girl and her dad came in with one hedgehog that had been found near Asda, Virginia made her excuses to the person on the phone as this hoggie was in a very very poorly condition - had my first taste of helping out even if it was just popping the kettle on to heat some water up for a hot water bottle! Whilst hoggie one was being warmed up, her hubby came back from the vets with one that had been for a check over as their was a suspected fracture - turns out it was an old fracture that had healed and as the hoggie was coping, it would not have been beneficial to reset the break, the second hoggie that went for a check up sadly did not come home - very poorly and had to be PTS. As Virginia was tending to the hoggie that was being warmed up, another phone call about another hoggie been found out in the day - luckily the gentleman was a taxi driver who said he would drop the hoggie off - which he did, just left it on her drive way and drove off!! This hoggie was in a better condition and readily took to food and will be treated for fleas and will be fed up - fairly confident that this little girl will be OK, sadly the first one is really poorly and it is highly unlikely that this one will pull through - on top of all of this, she is going to inspect and enclosed garden for a really old girl who was being picked on by other hoggies and had dropped a lot of weight off - she has been fed up and will fair better on release in a safe environment where she can get supplementary feeding - when full Virginia can spend six hours a day cleaning out and it shows as everything is spotless - this year she had helped over 90 native hoggies and did apply to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society for help with costs - do you know the maxium that they give to their carers in one year is £ 100.00
She has just spent £ 90.00 on one hog that had to have a limb amputated - without any after care.
My afternoon has made me more determined to raise funds for Virginia (Warrington) and Gill (Thatcham) as they really do need our help.
Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:02 pm
