This must be one of the rarest animals to have been rescued in recent years. Imagine the level of fear to would be in if one day you decide to go back home, go into the kitchen and see some animal that you have never seen. I don’t know about you, but this sometimes happens when I’m outdoors. I will see an animal that I think I have never seen, only to turn out to be something else. For those few seconds, all I want to do is run for the hills. This happened to me once when I was a little kid.
I was probably about eight-years-old and was playing in my front yard. I remember it was a sunny day in July. It was hot and dry that day. My mother had birds at the time and their singing would attract other birds. This day, I see this strange looking animal on the ground. Initially, I thought it was a bird. When I get closer, it looks more like a rat. It turns out it wasn’t. It was a bat. I was petrified. The minute I saw it I started screaming and running. My brother and my parents came out and carefully took the animal out and left it near a tree.
To a British resident, this would be an eerily similar experience. He works for the University of Sheffield in England. One day, he goes back to his house after a long day working. His plans are to have something to eat and maybe relax a little bit. Or at least, he thought he would. He gets home and opens the door.
Then he sees something that has him shaking in his boots. He sees a doughnut-shaped animal! He’s clueless as to what animal this might be. He can tell it’s an animal because he can see him breathing. This animal is also making a very weird noise that starts to freak him out. After the initial surprise, he decides to get a little bit closer. What he sees breaks his heart. This animal is not some sort of alien creature. It’s a hedgehog!
The poor animal is curled up in this very odd way because someone has done something terrible to him. They have clipped all his spines. This is something completely unnecessary as hedgehogs do not pose any danger to humans. They are just little animals that want to be left alone. In this condition, the Hedgehog cannot be released into the wild. As this British man would find out, the spines take a long time to grow back. If the little animal were to be released into the wild, he would have no way of protecting himself. His spines are his only line of defense and are usually very effective.
He carefully takes the little hedgehog to the Cawthorne Hedgehog Sanctuary. He’s hoping they can do something for him there. Allen Broadhead and his wife Anita are very happy to be of assistance. He is given an examination and a new name: Frankie. The poor animal is terrified because of his ordeal. They conclude that he is suffering a very severe case of ringworm. The posture he was in to protect himself did not make the examination any easier. Watch the video to find out how Frankie is doing now.
