Barney the Baby Hedgehog

by Tina Nolan

  Gradually, as Jen kept on rocking Barney he began to uncurl.

  “Wow, look at that,” Karl said when he came back with the lamp.

  Eva watched as Barney’s head came into view and he peered around with his shortsighted eyes. “Shall I try him with the dropper?” she asked Jen.

  “Yes. Hold it above his head and slightly to one side. Try and make the fluid drip into the corner of his mouth.”

  Eva did exactly as Jen told her, and was delighted when Barney opened his lips and let the glucose solution dribble into his mouth. “He’s drinking it!”

  “Well done. Now, Karl, turn the lamp on. I’ll fetch the anti-maggot powder. We don’t want any unwelcome guests hatching out in the unit, do we?”

  “He’s cute, isn’t he?” Eva asked Karl, feeling a tight knot of worry in her stomach begin to unwind now that little Barney was happily gulping his drink.

  Karl nodded. “I’m going to go and email Joel and tell him all about Barney,” he decided.

  “Yeah, say he should never have left us and gone to work in Russia!” Eva said with a smile. “Oh, and tell him I miss him!”

  Chapter Four

  Hi, Karl and everyone!

  Great to hear from you and I’m glad the good work goes on at Animal Magic. Good on you, Eva the Hedgehog Hero!

  Life here is different. Yesterday while you were busy rescuing hedgehogs, I was vaccinating a herd of beef cattle for a farmer who owns several thousand acres of Russian prairie. The wind cuts through you like a knife here.

  Still – variety is the spice of life, they say.

  Will write more when I get time.

  Take care, Joel x

  Karl showed Eva the email before he set out on an early morning dog walk with Buddy the golden Labrador-cross. “Hang on, Buddy,” he said as the boisterous youngster pulled at his lead. “Do you think Joel likes his new job?” he asked Eva.

  “It’s hard to tell. But I’m glad it’s not me vaccinating hundreds of cattle in the freezing cold.” Eva was in a hurry to help Jen in the small animals unit. “Give me hamsters and hedgehogs any day!”

  “Morning, Eva!” Jen called, as Eva joined her. Even though it was Sunday and her day off, Jen had come in to check on Ozzy.

  “How’s Barney?” Eva asked, making a beeline for the baby hedgehog.

  She found him snoozing in his cage, half-buried in straw. “I looked at your hedgehog sanctuary website,” she told Jen. “It told me lots of stuff I didn’t know.”

  “I’m glad Barney’s had a good sleep,” Jen commented as she joined Eva. “All these new smells and sounds confuse him. And hedgehogs don’t see too well, so that muddles him even more.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Eva laughed. “Barney looks like a little old man who needs new glasses!”

  “Anyway, it’ll be fine to wake him now that he’s had a rest.” Jen fetched some scales from a nearby shelf. “Let’s weigh him so we can keep a check on his weight gain over this next week or so.”

  “Cool! Can I do it?” Eva had read how to do this on the website. It meant putting on the thick gloves and rocking Barney on to the palm of her hand, then transferring him gently to the dish of the old-fashioned scales.

  “Now put the weights on the other end of the balance until it evens up exactly,” Jen told her.

  Eva looked anxiously at Barney, whose eyes were open but who was still curled tight in the brass dish. “What if he tries to make a dash for it?”

  “He won’t. Anyway, we’re nearly done,” Jen muttered as Eva slid the last disc-shaped weight on to the scales. “He weighs 560 grams.”

  “Can I take him off now?” Eva checked.

  “Yes. Snuggle him back into his straw bed.” Jen noted down the figure on a chart she’d set up for Barney. “He needs to reach 600 grams so that he’ll be fat enough to get through the winter. The sooner he reaches that weight, the sooner we can let him go. So we need to fatten him up a bit!”

  Eva nodded. She put Barney back in his cage and rocked him to and fro until he uncurled. “There, you see – safe and sound.”

  Rustling deep into the straw, Barney peered out, sniffing hard as Eva dished up some cat food.

  “This is for you,” she told him. “Yum!”

  Barney poked his nose out of the straw. Nervously he shuffled forwards.

  “It’s scrummy – try it!” Eva whispered.

  Sniff-sniff – Barney edged forward. He put his front paws on to the edge of the saucer and dipped his snout into the food. Another quick sniff then he opened his mouth and began to chomp happily.

  “Success.” Jen smiled. “And I’ve checked the splint on Ozzy’s leg, which seems fine, so I’m out of here!”

  Eva nodded. “Enjoy your day off.”

  “I will. I’m cycling over to Clifton to see some friends. What are you up to?”

  Eva checked things off on her fingers. “Feed the rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs. Take two dogs for walks. Muck out Rosie and Mickey’s stables…”

  “Stop!” Jen put up both hands. “I’m worn out just thinking about it!”

  “Oh, and then this afternoon Annie and I are riding Guinevere.” Eva laughed. “That is, if I have time!”

  “You should have seen Barney dashing about looking for his mum in Mr Ingleby’s yard,” Eva told her next door neighbour and best friend, Annie Brooks. Annie was riding Guinevere by the riverbank while Eva walked alongside. “He was so scared he didn’t know which way to run.”

  Annie pulled on the reins as her mum’s grey mare stopped to chew grass. “Cut it out, Gwinnie. Mum doesn’t like hedgehogs in her garden,” she told Eva. “She says they wear a path across her lawn.”

  “Tut!” Eva swished at the long grass with a stick she’d picked up from the bank. “She ought to love them. They eat the slugs that chomp her lettuce.”

  “I’ll tell her.” Annie grinned. Still struggling to raise Gwinnie’s head, she slid from the saddle, gave Eva the hard-hat, then handed her the reins. “Your turn!”

  Happily, Eva put her foot in the stirrup and sprang into the saddle. “Walk on, Gwinnie,” she said with a click of her tongue.

  Guinevere flicked her ears and tossed her long white mane. She set off at a smart walk.

  “Trot on!” Eva said with a squeeze of her legs. “Is it OK if I canter?” she asked Annie.

  “Go for it!”

  Eva turned Guinevere away from the river and sat deep in the saddle, sending the horse into a smooth canter up the hill towards Annie’s house. In the distance, Guinevere’s foal, Merlin, plus Mickey and Rosie were quietly grazing.

  “Whee!” Eva loved the feel of the wind in her face and the thundering sound of the horse’s hooves.

  Rosie, Merlin and Mickey looked up, then galloped to join in the fun. The little brown and white Shetland soon fell behind the frisky foal and the long-legged donkey, who almost cannoned into Gwinnie and Eva.

  “Whoa, Mickey!” Eva yelled, pulling on the reins to bring Gwinnie to a halt.

  The donkey bared his teeth and dug in his hooves, coming to a sudden stop beside them.

  “Watch where you’re going, Mickey!” Eva cried, laughing at stout little Rosie as she trotted up behind Mickey and Merlin.

  “It’s not fair, is it, Rosie. Everyone has longer legs than you.”

  Rosie kicked up her heels and put in a little buck of pure joy.

  “Hey, Annie, shall we take this lot in from the field and give them a good grooming?” Eva asked, looking over her shoulder to see her friend running up from the riverbank. “I could ride back to the yard and fetch the head collars.”

  “No need!” Annie’s mother’s head appeared over the hedge. She must have heard the girls while she’d been working in her garden. “I have head collars here. Wait a minute.”

  Moments later, Linda appeared with the halters.

  “Annie, you lead Mickey and Merlin. Eva, you carry on riding Guinevere back to the yard. I’ll bring Rosie along in a few minutes and lend a hand.
Then Gwinnie and Merlin can come back into the field overnight. The weather forecast said that it was going to be nice and mild.”

  “Thanks, Mum.” Annie grinned up at Eva. Not so long ago, her mum would have been complaining about the noise made by the animals at the rescue centre, not offering to come and help.

  It was the end of a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon in early September, and Eva knew that life didn’t get much better than this.

  Chapter Five

  “Stand still, Mickey!” Annie pleaded with the donkey, brush in hand. “How can I groom you if you keep on prancing about?”

  Mickey raised his head and gave an earsplitting bray.

  “Ouch!” In the stable next door, Eva was taking off Guinevere’s bridle, ready for her pamper session. “That hurt my ears!”

  “That’s better.” At last Annie managed to corner Mickey. “You want to look smart, don’t you? That’s it, good boy.”

  “OK, Merlin, it’ll soon be your turn,” Eva laughed as the foal nudged her arm, then nuzzled her pocket. “Oh, I see – you want an apple, but those are for later. You’ll have to wait until we’ve finished grooming, before Linda takes you back into your field.”

  Disappointed, Merlin stuck his head over the stable door and whinnied at Rosie, who was being led across Animal Magic’s yard by Linda Brooks.

  “Here we are!” Linda sang out. She waved at Mark and Karl.

  “Hi, Linda. Nice afternoon!” Mark called from the back door of the old farmhouse.

  “Perfect.” Linda waited for Mark to join her. “I was wondering – is Heidi around?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. Will I do instead?”

  Patting Rosie’s neck, Linda smiled awkwardly. “No thanks, Mark. It’s something I wanted to discuss with Heidi.”

  Eva listened to the conversation. “What’s that about?” she muttered to Annie.

  “Search me. Mickey, stand still.” Annie thought for a moment. “She probably wants some advice about Gwinnie’s teeth. I heard her tell dad she needed the phone number of a good horse dentist.”

  “You hear that?” Eva asked the grey mare. “You’re going to get your teeth filed, you lucky thing!”

  Linda brought Rosie over to the stables, and led her into the corner stall.

  “If it’s a horse dentist you want, I know where Mum keeps the phone numbers,” Eva offered, brushing away at Gwinnie’s mane until it shone.

  Linda shook her head. “Actually, that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to Heidi about.”

  “Steady!” Annie warned Mickey as he stomped his feet. She leaned out of the donkey’s stable. “Mum, what’s the mystery? You’re blushing! What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Linda said quietly.

  “Yes, it is!” Annie knew her mum only too well. She left Mickey to fidget and went over. “Come on, Mum. What are you up to?”

  “Not now, Annie. Let me talk to Heidi first.” With a shake of her head, Linda bolted Rosie’s door.

  The little Shetland went straight to her hay-net and began to eat. Munch-munch – her strong teeth ground away at the sweet hay.

  “Mum, tell me!” Annie insisted. Suddenly a glint came into her eye. “If it isn’t about Gwinnie, is it Merlin?”

  “No. Don’t pester me.” With her back turned, Linda set about brushing Rosie.

  “Or Rosie?” Annie said, sounding excited.

  Eva could sense something important in the air. She stopped grooming Gwinnie and waited to hear more.

  Annie wouldn’t let her mum off the hook. “It is – it’s Rosie, isn’t it?”

  Linda sighed. She crouched down and put her arm around the sturdy little Shetland’s neck. “Oh all right, I give in. I’ll tell you girls what you want to know.”

  Eva and Annie nodded eagerly.

  “I’ve developed a real soft spot for this young lady,” Linda confessed. “And I think she likes me.”

  Rosie turned her head and nuzzled Linda’s cheek.

  Annie and Eva held their breath.

  “So, I’ve decided to ask Heidi if she’ll let me adopt Rosie!” Linda announced. “I want her to come and live with us permanently!”

  “So we broke out the apples and celebrated!” Eva told Heidi and Jen later that afternoon. “Of course we gave Rosie the biggest and juiciest one.”

  “It’s fantastic news,” Heidi agreed. “Annie must have been so pleased.”

  “Yes, well excited.” Eva watched as her mum lifted the patient on to the surgery table. It was a stray dog, painfully thin, which Jen had discovered trapped in an empty lock-up garage in town. She’d phoned Mark and he’d driven into town and brought the stray back to Animal Magic.

  “From what we can gather, it seems like someone dumped the poor thing in a garage and locked the door.” Heidi listened to the dog’s heartbeat, then examined her eyes and mouth.

  “She’s dehydrated and she only weighs about half of what would be her normal weight, but given time and some TLC she should be OK.”

  Eva sighed as the smooth-haired white dog tried to raise her head, then let it loll back on the table. “I’ll get Karl to take a picture. Do you know where he is?”

  “In the small animals unit, the last I knew.”

  Quickly Eva went to find her brother, but he wasn’t where she expected him to be. The unit was all quiet and Eva found herself drawn to Barney’s cage. She peered in to see how her little friend was doing. “And how are you? Are you hungry? Shall I give you some food?”

  For once Barney didn’t curl into a ball at the sound of Eva’s approach. Instead he shuffled to the wire mesh door and snuffled in his short-sighted way.

  “Yes, it’s me,” Eva whispered. “I’m the one who feeds you, remember!”

  Little Barney poked his long nose through the mesh while Eva prepared his food. When she opened the door he stuck his nose straight into the dish.

  “Better than beetles and toads, huh?” Eva grinned. Like Eva, Karl had been on the hedgehog website and discovered all about their diet. He’d told Eva that morning over breakfast.

  “Maggots, worms, insects, beetles, earwigs, slugs, caterpillars, toads and dead mice!” he’d announced, making Eva spit out her cornflakes.

  Barney looked too cute to have dead mice on his menu. But then, as Heidi had pointed out, hedgehogs probably turned their noses up at human treats like cream cakes and chocolate cookies.

  In any case, Barney was tucking in to his cat food, happily piling on the pounds.

  Or grams, Eva thought. Then she got to thinking about Barney’s family. I wonder how many brothers and sisters you’ve got. And if your mum misses you. Or if she’ll come back to Mr Ingleby’s farm to look for you, in spite of what Mum thinks.

  Ignoring her, Barney guzzled his way through his supper.

  “OK, so your mum might reject you because we’ve handled you and left our scent. And I’m totally cool with hand-rearing you because you’re gorgeous. But that’s not the point…”

  Suddenly Karl burst in with a huge grin on his face. “Smidge and Smudge have been adopted by the Scaife family. They seemed really nice.”

  “Cool.” Eva pretended she hadn’t been deep in conversation with Barney. “Can you go into the surgery and photograph a new stray dog?” she asked.

  Karl nodded. “So what’s not the point?” he asked, picking up from where Eva had left off with Barney. “It’s OK, you can drop the act. I heard you doing your Doctor Doolittle talking to the animals thing!”

  Eva tutted. “I just thought – what if Barney isn’t the only baby hedgehog who got lost in Mr Ingleby’s barn? What if he’s got brothers and sisters?”

  “And no mum?” Karl nodded slowly. “It’s possible.”

  “More than possible!” Eva insisted. “I checked the website and it says there are usually three or four babies in one litter. They’re called hoglets! Isn’t that cute?”

  Karl rolled his eyes. “Cute? I hope you’re not getting too attached, Eva. And remember – you’re only guessing th
at the mum isn’t still around.” Karl was being logical as usual.

  “I know.” Eva bit her lip. “But what if?”

  “OK, say you’re right,” Karl argued, walking out of the unit with Eva following. “Say there are more orphan babies out there. What do you plan to do about it?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’m going to carry on thinking,” she replied, closing the door behind her. “But, Karl, I’ll tell you one thing for sure – I’m not going to forget about it!”

  Chapter Six

  “So I was wondering, Annie, if you’d like to camp out in Mr Ingleby’s barn?”

  Annie stood at the front door, her mouth gaping open in surprise. “Just run through that again,” she begged Eva. “You want to find out if there are any more baby hedgehogs like Barney, and the way you plan to do it is to have a sleepover in the barn at High Trees Farm. Did I get that right?”

  Eagerly Eva nodded. The idea had come to her at teatime. In a second she’d jumped up and started to organize.

  “Uh-oh, Eva’s just had one of her eureka moments!” Mark had laughed.

  “More hoglets … probably lost … camp out … Annie!” she’d gabbled.

  In the end, her mum and dad had agreed to the barn sleepover, but only as long as Linda let Annie go along too, and provided Tom Ingleby didn’t mind.

  “But don’t be disappointed if no other hoglets show up,” Heidi had warned. “You two could be out there all night and see absolutely nothing!”

  “Mad!” Karl had said, retreating to his computer. “I’m going to email Joel and tell him that my sister is as nutty as a fruitcake!”

  Eva had gone ahead anyway and dug out her sleeping bag, a fleece and a thick pair of socks. Now she was at Annie’s door, desperate to get on with her plan.

  “Quick – ask your mum!” she urged Annie. “Remind her we’re still on summer holidays, so there’s no school tomorrow. Promise her we’ll be careful, and say Mr and Mrs Ingleby will keep an eye on us.”