Last Christmas Eve and we were walking back from a Christmas event through the park. We bumped into an old friend and started talking. By then we were at the top of the park. Our friend's dog Poppy was jumping around one certain area. We started to leave but our friend shouted that there was a hedgehog. We ran over and a little hedgehog was curled up!

It was quite little (a juvenile) and would not be able to survive winter hibernation so we got a box and put it in there with a towel and took it home and left it some food and water. The hedgehog was the cutest thing but it seemed sad that it was left alone in the cold. When the hedgehog (Gizmo) was weighed, she was only 300g!

It turned out she had to eat a lot before she could be released as she did not have enough weight to survive the winter. Our neighbour Peter, who is also very interested in hedgehogs, was willing to have her in his heated shed, with food, till ready to release. After a while we weighed her again and she had lost weight...which was odd as she had been eating lots.

Then she ran around and didn’t show much sign of being scared...she didn’t roll up. We all decided she better go to a wildlife centre where they could look after her properly so it was agreed. We called various places and one person (Esther) said that the fact that Gizmo had lost weight and was not curling up AND had ticks, she was ill.

It was New Years Eve and Peter, Tom and my Mum and I took Gizmo straight to Esther. Esther removed all the ticks. She said that Gizmo had worms and needed to stay in the really sick area where she could be treated and fed. A few days later and we contacted Esther to make sure Gizmo was ok. It turned out she was responding well to treatment and is feeding well.

In the Spring, Gizmo is coming back to us and we will release her into our local area!