Hedgehog carnage

Ho - hum - seems it's that time of year again.

All hell breaks loose so I call the dogs in to find them bloody mouthed. It used to be a drama but after 12 years or so - it's just routine .

1 - Extract needles from mouths

2 - Turn on spot-light to look for hedgehog - never find it.

3 - let dogs out again (they go straight to it) and try to beat them to it - pick it up and pop over the wall.

4 Check in the morning - 50% it's gone / 50% it's dead

Anybody else have hedgehog problems ??

Thankfully i dont... i love hedgehogs so would hate for Jake to kill them... i still remember when my aunt ran over one, i was about 12 and cried all night

Dont think Ive ever seen one this area. Thankfully!

They come in to the garden every night, they eat the bird food that has fallen off the bird tables etc. The dogs (one of whom has a huge prey drive) run over and sniff them. Until puppy came, that was the ritual. Puppy picks them up so I go out with them to ensure hedgehogs safety. So far all well thankfully.

We found one in the back garden a couple of months ago, being sniffed by Layton and quickly moved him away from it.

He spent about the next month going back to the spot he'd seen it in hoping it would come back to play - think he thought it was a new dog proof (ie a 10 minute challenge) ball!

My old boy Max found one in the garden once and tried to pick it up. Hedgehog was quite a few spines shorter by the end of it and I spent half an hour trying to get the spines out of his gums. Daft mutt!

We've always had loads in our very "wild" garden but the dogs have all learned very quickly that hoggies are best left well alone! I love the huff huff huff noises that the male makes to frighten off other males ... and the fact that we have no snail or slug problems in the garden! Gardeners' best friends, hedgehogs.

Horrific experience last year in mother in laws garden. Bruno went under the hedge dug it out and killed it it was awful it screeched and Bruno was bloody mouthed and covered inn spines.

Awful awful awful.

That's what happens with Skye and it's a real pain.

There's no way of knowing whether they're in the garden or not when I let the dogs out at night so I have to be ready just in case.

Providing I'm on the ball I can get there in time and remove the hedgehog before it gets destroyed and set it free.

We had one visit the other night! Jinty woofed at its snuffling and then carried on pottering about the garden, ignoring it. I like hedgies so I would be most disaproving if Jinty thought they were a snack!