Hog detective

Outside and there was a noise.

From what I could tell, there was a hedgehog frustratedly huffing on the wrong side of my fence.

My garden is the hog refuge, what with the worms and the water and the places to hide and hibernate, but I'd left no hog-gate in the fence! What a dreadful person.

I went inside. Then the cats ran to the back door, chittering, and I knew they'd finally clocked on.

I opened the door to see and hear two hogs, right there, on my path, having squirmed under the fence. They were nose to nose and one was huffing. They froze. Went silent. I closed the door and reopened it with some hog food - they'd gone, but I could hear them.

I messaged Clare, Hog expert and general Dr. Dolittle. She said the females huff as the randy males march around them. She had two in her hog hotel.

She was worried about the male as he didn't move off. I'm going to quote her Facebook post:

Found this chap in the feeding box again this morning and he was still there (fast asleep) this afternoon. The saying goes ‘out in the day, not ok’ led me to believe he might be sick…

So after a quick health check and weighing in at just over 1kg he turns out to be a strong, healthy hog.

I also checked HogCam and it shows a hedgehog constantly flirting all night and into the early hours.

So we have come to the conclusion this randy little chap spends all his time flirting and not eating so got caught out by daybreak. He has had to resort to sleeping in the dark feeding box until evening when no doubt his excessive flirting will start all over again!

By the way, Clare is a trained hedgehog handler and has done courses regarding the care of injured and sick hedgehogs. That's why she is in a position to hold and weigh this one.