Rescued ‘hedgehog’ nursed overnight turned out to be a pompom
A woman spent an entire night nursing what she thought was a baby hedgehog but it turned out to be a fluffy bobble from a hat.
She was so worried that she rushed the suspected hedgehog to Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital in Knutsford, Cheshire, the following day.
The suspected hoglet was found on a pavement and looked after by her after she placed a small dish of food next to it and kept it in a newspaper lined box.
When it was taken in to the hospital, wildlife hospital manager Janet Kotze soon realised it was in fact a fluffy bobble.
Janet delivered the funny news to the woman who replied ‘you’re joking,’ before she walked off with the box and bobble under her arm.
Janet said: ‘I opened the box and, well, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. I thought “it’s definitely not a hedgehog, perhaps it’s some other kind of a fluffy creature”‘.
‘I realised it wasn’t animated at all and I picked it up and obviously with the weight I could feel that it wasn’t a hedgehog or any animal at all.
‘I put it back in the box and came out and said to the lady “it’s actually a bobble off a bobble hat”.
‘She was very embarrassed, she was very sweet, bless her, her heart was in the right place. She took the box from me and left quite quickly.
‘I found it funny afterwards but I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing because to me a hedgehog is obviously a hedgehog.
‘I would have immediately known from the weight – a bobble weighs nothing but bless her heart was in the right place.
‘I don’t think she’ll make the same mistake again, I think she’ll check next time.’
Janet said any hedgehogs spotted out during the daytime should be taken to a rescue centre.
She added: ‘It’s a golden rule that hedgehogs shouldn’t be out in daytime, especially little ones like that, but she did absolutely the right thing – aside from the fact that it wasn’t a hedgehog.
‘Mostly if they’re found out in the daytime in the open, there’s definitely something wrong and they should be taken to rescue.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.