Marian Brown's European Adoption Story:

Marian Brown’s European Hedgehog, Kiwi, at The West Bretton Hedgehog Rescue.

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June 16th, 2003

Hi Marian,

Sorry I am late with your adoption details, I have had an abused hedgehog in & I am not a very happy person, these cases are always so distressing.

Here are Kiwi's notes & I have attached a photo, she was not very happy to have a picture taken, I will try again & get a better one of her for you.

On Tuesday morning 10th June the doorbell rang & I was surprised to see the post mistress on the doorstep. "Can you help me please" she said " I have a hedgehog stuck in my cellar". So off I went up the hill to the post office & was shown where Kiwi was last seen.
It seems she had walked over the grate in the back yard & dropped through into the cellar, she would have landed on a stone slab & then fallen off that on to the cellar floor. Remarkably then she had climbed the stone cellar steps which were quite steep & wedged herself behind a fridge that was kept on the cellar head.
I laid on the floor & stretched my arm as far as I could reach & just managed to get hold of a few spines & gently pulled her towards me.
I impressed the lady by showing her the difference between a male & a female and I placed her into a cat carrier & brought her home (the hedgehog not the lady). Kiwi was very thin weighing only 435g & had a few ticks on her, which I removed & drowned, other than that she looked quite well with no injuries. I have found that in general hedgehogs do seem to bounce quite well when they fall.
I placed her in a quiet cage & gave her some fresh food & water, I also wormed her which we do as general practice.
She has been no trouble eating very well & yesterday she weighed 602 g which is a very pleasing weight gain. At the moment we are having a very dry spell so I will not release her back to the wild until we get some rain, possibly next week.

Thank you for adopting Kiwi, I appreciate your support, I will e.mail you when Kiwi is released, but if you would like any more details of her recovery please get in touch.

Best Wishes,
Sonia

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July 11th, 2003

Hi Marian & Emily,

Hope you are both well. Here is the latest news of Kiwi & Euro. They have both done extremely well. Kiwi was no trouble at all just needed some TLC to get her back to health. Euro needed his course of antibiotics & wormer to sort out his disgusting droppings & the rest he got here enabled him to regain full use of his leg. I have attached a photograph of them both before being released. The boys who live at the house were thrilled to have 2 hedgehogs brought to their garden. Kiwi on being released decided she wasn't hanging around & immediately squeezed through the fence into the adjoining garden, she didn't even stop to wave goodbye. Euro hid behind a bush, waiting for us to leave so he could investigate his new home. I hope & pray they will make the best of their second chance & live a full & happy hedgie life.

Thank you for your support, it has been a great boost both morally & financially.

Sonia

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