but on closer inspection (both visual and odor-y) i could tell all was not well.  the mum was in fact dead (and maggoty) but the baby was still trying to suckle (i assume).  very sad.

so i googled and found some information that said we needed to help this poor little orphan piglet.  it seemed quite a daunting task as you have to catch it, feed it mashed up cat food and goats or sheeps milk, and then wind it like a baby by stroking its stomach.  and i thought we'd moved on from that life stage.

so i decided to get some real world advice and phoned a lovely lady from the British Hedgehog Society  She told me i needed to catch the baby as it would surely die, and that there may be other babies running about unacounted for.  She also advised me to do similar things to what i found on the internet to keep it alive until i could take it to her hedgehog hospital.

then, recognising my skill level, suggested i took it to her right then.  that would be an hour and half's round trip on a school night, when i'd had the day off sick due to a stomach bug, so not ideal.

anyway, i removed mother (bagged and binned) but baby was nowhere to be seen.  whizzed off in the undergrowth somewhere (we've not done any gardening this year due to having the builders in for 6 months).  so all very sad.  although i will at least go to bed at a reasonable hour.

oh, and i popped next door to a kind neighbour who leant me some cat food in case the baby does turn up again.  she's a hedgehog expert and introduced some more scarey variables in to the surrogate sitution including maggot eggs, fleas and ticks.

and that's how i i briefly became a hedgehog expert, and nearly became a surrogate hedgehog parent but didn't, and nearly became a longdistance hedgehog ambulance driver but didn't.  but perhaps the story isn't over yet ...