Barney the Baby Hedgehog

by Tina Nolan

  “I heard all that,” Linda said, coming out from the lounge. Luckily, she was still in a good mood over Rosie. In fact, she’d been busily looking through a Build-Your-Own-Stable catalogue when Eva had knocked at the door. “So, Eva – this is Operation Baby Hedgehog, is it?”

  Eva nodded. “Can Annie sleep out with me, please?”

  “If she wants to – yes, she can.”

  “Of course you want to, don’t you?” Eva didn’t give Annie chance to object. “You need to pack a sleeping bag and a bottle of water, plus snacks…”

  “Whoa!” Annie cut Eva off mid-flow. She stood in her flowery top with cut-off white trousers and smart new trainers. “Do I look as if I’m dressed to sleep out in a mucky old barn?”

  “Oh!” Eva’s face fell. “Are you saying you don’t want to?”

  For a split second Annie kept Eva in suspense. Then she broke out in a wide grin. “Course I do! Give me five minutes to change, and I’ll be round at your place.”

  Eva breathed a sigh of relief. “So not funny,” she muttered, scooting back to Animal Magic, where she made a couple of doorstep cheese sandwiches and packed them in her school rucksack.

  “Apples?” Mark suggested, putting them in the bag for her. “Flapjacks? And by the way, your mum rang Tom Ingleby and he says it’s OK to do your sleepover there.”

  Soon Eva was packed and ready, her bag stuffed with goodies, plus two strong torches with new batteries and a pair of thick gloves just in case.

  “Here comes Annie now,” Heidi said, looking through the window. “Your dad is going to drive you over to High Trees.” Giving Eva a quick hug, she saw her on her way. “I’ve put a pet carrier and a tin of cat food in the back of the van,” she reminded her. “And remember – don’t handle any hedgehogs without gloves – those prickles are sharp!”

  “Bye, Mum!” Eva called. “Bye, Mickey!” she yelled as the donkey brayed from his stable. “Bye, Karl!” She waved at her brother sitting by his bedroom window. “Take care of Barney for me. Tell him I’ll see him tomorrow!”

  “I hope you don’t mind – we’ve made a den in the barn,” Eva told Mrs Ingleby, who was just back from her early evening church service. Eva’s dad had already gone into the house to chat with Tom.

  As soon as Annie and Eva had arrived at the farm, they’d started shifting bales of straw to build a shelter from the wind that blew through the open-sided barn. Then they’d laid out the pet carrier and cat food, plus their sleeping bags and other belongings.

  Mrs Ingleby smiled. “I hope you’ll be nice and cosy in there. If you need anything, just knock at our door.”

  Eva thanked her then went with Annie to check out the view from their den.

  “We can see the whole farmyard from here,” Annie confirmed. “And a bit of the lane, plus that jumble of stones and the cement mixer over there…”

  “That’s where the Inglebys are building a new house for Adam.” Eva climbed to the top of the stack to look round the back of the barn. “Just trees, fields and hedges,” she reported, sliding back down. “Hey, this is exciting, isn’t it?”

  Annie nodded. “Better than camping.”

  “Better than anything!” Eva insisted, nestling into the straw den. And the best thing of all was that they were out to rescue more baby hedgehogs!

  “What was that noise?” Annie gasped.

  It was eleven o’clock and the farmyard was pitch black.

  “An owl,” Eva told her. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Annie sat huddled in her sleeping bag. “What was that?” she asked again.

  “What? Where?”

  “Down there – something moved!”

  “Probably a mouse.”

  “Or a rat!” Annie sounded scared. Sleeping out was turning into a nightmare of eerie hoots, beating wings, soft shuffles and quick scurries.

  “I’m sure it’s not!” Eva insisted, though her own nerves were a bit on edge. It was so dark! Clouds hid the moon. The world lay in deep shadow.

  “We haven’t even seen a sign of any hedgehogs,” Annie complained. “And we’ve been here for hours!”

  “Wait a bit longer. The lights in the house have only just gone off. Now’s the time when everything comes out of hiding.”

  “Such as?” Annie asked, her voice quavering.

  “Such as badgers,” Eva replied. “And foxes. Owls. Bats. Hedgehogs.” She shone her torch out across the farmyard and spotted Missie disappearing through the cat flap into the farmhouse. Then she saw another creature – something the size of a big dog, with a long nose and bushy tail. “Fox!” she whispered, aiming the torch.

  The fox turned to stare up into the beam of light. His yellow eyes flashed.

  “Spooky!” Annie whispered.

  The fox flicked the white tip of his tail and loped off down the lane, out of sight.

  Just then Eva spotted something else that deserved a closer look – small movements in the Inglebys’ flower border, and when she listened closely, the high, piping sound of animals in distress. “Annie, listen – this could be it!”

  Annie flicked on her own torch. Two beams raked the flower bed. The high cries came to a sudden stop.

  “I’m going to take a closer look,” Eva decided, getting up and creeping forwards.

  Annie didn’t want to be left alone. “Wait, I’m coming too!” she hissed.

  Soon the two girls stood at the barn entrance, deciding on their next move.

  “Let’s switch off the torches,” Eva suggested. “If there are baby hedgehogs hiding among the plants, they won’t come out if we leave them on.”

  With the flick of two switches, the girls were pitched into total darkness.

  “It’s giving me goosebumps!” Annie whispered. The wind blew across the fields and through the tall ash trees behind the barn.

  Eva waited for her eyes to get used to the dark. Gradually, she made out the shape of the farmhouse across the yard, and then an animal coming around the corner. Maybe it was Missie out on the prowl after mice again, or perhaps something bigger and more dangerous…

  “The fox is back!” Annie gasped. She too had seen the intruder.

  The fox crept towards the flower border, ignoring Eva and Annie. He seemed to have his mind fixed on something else, head low and sniffing the ground. He was following a trail!

  “Oh no you don’t!” Eva muttered. She flashed on her torch and dashed forward, just as the fox pounced and three baby hedgehogs broke cover and ran in all directions across Tom Ingleby’s yard.

  Chapter Seven

  “Back off!” Eva shone her torch straight at the fox.

  He curled his top lip and snarled back at her.

  “Go on, scoot!” Eva insisted. “Annie, you try to round up the hoglets while I deal with the fox.”

  Anxiously, Annie ran after the first baby hedgehog, who had taken cover inside the barn. Quickly, she put on the gloves and clumsily scooped the hedgehog between her palms.

  Meanwhile, the fox turned from the beam of light and slowly slunk away.

  Her heart beating fast, Eva watched him vanish down the lane. “Thank goodness!” she muttered. The fox’s teeth had looked sharp and nasty.

  “I’ve caught one of the babies!” Annie called from the barn.

  “Great. Put him in the carrier. Did you see which way the other two went?”

  “One ran towards the house.”

  Quickly, Eva began to search the flower bed where they’d found Barney. She used her torch to peer under the leaves. “I know this light is scary,” she murmured. “But don’t be frightened. We’re here to help.”

  “Any luck?” Annie had put the first baby in the carrier and joined Eva.

  “Not yet.” Eva was surprised how fast the hoglets had run. She had a sinking feeling that they would never find the two who were still on the loose.

  Suddenly, Annie heard a scuffling sound behind one of Mrs Ingleby’s marigold pots by the farmhouse door. She shone her torch and discovered the second
cowering baby. “Over here!” she hissed.

  “Cool, Annie!” Eva heaved a sigh of relief. “Can you manage here while I track down the last one?”

  “Go ahead. Did you see any sign of the mother?”

  Eva shook her head. “She’s definitely not around. If she was, she’d have been here with them when the fox showed up.”

  “Do you think it means she’s dead?” Gently, Annie rolled the second hoglet on to her gloved palm.

  “Yes. Which means I need to find hoglet number three – right away!”

  But where to start? Eva shone the torch around the farmyard, trying to remember how the three babies had scattered – one towards the barn, one towards the house and – yes, that was right – one had sprinted for the building site at the side of the barn. Eva set off after this last one.

  She shone the torch over the pile of bricks and stones, and over the dusty orange cement mixer. The builders had made a start on digging the foundations, so she had to jump across a pile of earth and a narrow trench. No – that couldn’t be right – the baby wouldn’t have been able to cross the trench. Eva retraced her steps and kept on searching.

  This is hopeless! she thought. Like looking for a needle in a haystack.

  But the idea of the lonely orphan drove her on. Her feet crunched over gravel as she shone her torch amongst the rubble, then over the neat stack of bricks.

  Eeee-ee! A tiny cry stopped Eva in her tracks. Eeee!

  It came from an untidy coil of green hose attached to a tap on the side of the barn. Eva turned off the torch and tiptoed across.

  The noise stopped. Had she imagined it? Carefully she crouched by the hose.

  Eee-eee! came the helpless, lonely cry.

  Eva held her breath and waited. There was a small movement, another high-pitched cry, and then the baby emerged from the curled hose.

  Yes! On the spur of the moment, Eva took off her fleece jacket and used it to pick up the hedgehog. She ran to the barn door and showed it to Annie. “Let’s put it in with the other two,” she gasped.

  The two captured hedgehogs squeaked and cried as Annie opened the door. Quickly, Eva lowered the third wanderer into the carrier. “Success!” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  “You’re safe now!” Eva promised. Safe from the fox. Protected from the dangers of the big wide world.

  After the excitement of the round-up, silence had fallen. Apart from the wind blowing through the ash trees, there was no sound.

  “Look at them tucking in to that dish of food!” Annie murmured.

  The two girls were snuggled in their sleeping bags, watching the hoglets feed.

  “Barney will be really pleased to see you.” Eva sighed. “And when we get you back we can weigh you and dust you with maggot powder, and feed you up and then…”

  “Then what?” Annie interrupted as Eva slowed down.

  “Then they’ll be ready for the winter,” Eva faltered.

  “How do you mean – ready?”

  “Ready to be released back into the wild,” Eva explained.

  As the three tiny babies munched greedily, she glanced up at her friend and sighed. “That’s the way it works, Annie. We can’t turn them into pets. They’re wild creatures. That’s where they belong.”

  It was after midnight before Eva and Annie fell asleep. The farmyard was still. An owl flitted into the barn and perched in the rafters.

  At dawn a pink sky woke the girls and the first thing they did was check the hoglets.

  “One – two – three,” Annie counted three little heads peeping out of the bed of newspaper and straw. Three pointed snouts and three pairs of furry ears.

  “Breakfast time!” Eva announced, spooning food into their dish.

  The babies gulped and guzzled, snorted and sniffed.

  “Cute!” Annie cooed over them. “How about calling this one with the fluffy eyebrows Tufty?”

  “And this one Patch?” Eva recognized the baby they’d found in the flower bed by a small bare patch on its back. “And the one who legged it towards the building site can be Scooby.”

  “Tufty, Patch and Scooby!” Annie agreed happily.

  “Not that we’re turning them into pets!” Eva added hurriedly.

  They both laughed and rolled up their sleeping bags, waiting for the sound of the Animal Magic van to come up the lane.

  Chapter Eight

  “Mission accomplished!” Jen said when she drove into the farmyard. “One look at your two faces tells me that the plan was a great success.”

  Eva and Annie beamed and nodded. “Come and see!” Annie said.

  Jen peered through the mesh front of the carrier and counted the babies. “No mother?” she checked.

  “No.” Eva shook her head. “You know that hedgehogs have a run which they use every night?” she said to Jen. “Well, what happens if the run gets blocked – by a flood, say, or by something man-made, like a new house getting built?”

  “Then they get totally lost and confused,” Jen replied, picking up on Eva’s train of thought. “You’re talking about the building site round the corner here?”

  Eva nodded. “Scooby – this one with the black legs – made a dash straight down there, only there was a trench stopping him from going the way he might usually have run, before they started digging.”

  Jen decided to take a look. Leading Annie and Eva across the building site, she opened a gate and gazed down the sloping field.

  “What are we looking for?” Annie asked.

  “See if you can spot a track worn in the grass and the undergrowth – especially by the hedges.”

  “Like this?” Eva asked. She pointed to a narrow track running alongside the hedge and across through the trees towards the back of the Inglebys’ barn.

  “Exactly!” Jen cried. “And look – the track cuts by the barn, under the gate and comes to a stop right against the stack of bricks and rubble.”

  “It’s Barney’s run!” Eva gasped. “And it’s just like I thought – it’s been cut off by the builders. No wonder the hoglets got lost!”

  “Ace detective Eva strikes again!” Annie grinned. “I bet you’re right – and it explains a lot.”

  “Except what happened to their mum,” Jen said slowly. “And I guess that’s something we may never know. Let’s get those babies back to Animal Magic,” she said briskly, heading back towards the van. “Heidi’s expecting us. There are a thousand and one jobs to do.”

  Back in the small animals unit, Eva was telling her mum the whole story about the hedgehog run and the building site. “But the hedgehogs were there first!” she complained.

  Annie had been dragged off by her mum to have breakfast and get a shower while Eva and Jen reunited Scooby, Patch and Tufty with Barney.

  Now Heidi was casting an eye over the three new arrivals.

  “I’m sure Tom and Adam Ingleby didn’t know they were building over a hedgehog run,” Eva’s mum pointed out. “They wouldn’t do it on purpose. It’s just an unfortunate accident.”

  “It makes no difference.” Eva sighed. “Anyway, they know now because Adam came out to talk to us before we drove away.”

  “And you told him?” Heidi guessed.

  “In no uncertain terms,” Jen said wryly. “As I remember it, Eva’s exact words to Adam were, ‘Did you know that you’re building a house over a hedgehog run?’”

  “Yes. And Adam said he was sorry but it was done now. The builders had started work on the foundations and there was no way he could alter it.” Eva frowned as she told her mum about the discussion.

  “Which is true.” Cool and calm as usual, Heidi went to check Ozzy’s leg.

  “I said the builders could have left a passageway down the side of the barn for the hedgehogs to keep on using,” Eva went on. She stayed by the hoglets’ cage and watched Barney sniff then greet Scooby while Patch and Tufty rummaged in the straw. “Adam said they could have if they’d known, but it was too late now.”

  “Which it is,”
Heidi said quietly. “I hope you weren’t rude to Adam, Eva. After all, the Inglebys did let you camp out in their barn.”

  “Not rude, but firm,” Jen said. “And I must admit, I’m with Eva on this.”

  Eva glanced eagerly across the room. “And Jen agreed with me that it’s still worthwhile asking the Inglebys to clear a passage down the side of the barn. I had the idea when we were in the van, coming home. I was thinking ahead.”

  “OK,” Heidi said slowly. Satisfied with the rabbit’s progress, she put him back in his cage. “In what way, thinking ahead?”

  “Like this!” Eva explained. “The builders clear a passageway for wild animals, including hedgehogs, to come and go. They build a fence to block off the building work. Then we make nest boxes for Barney, Tufty, Scooby and Patch. We put them amongst the ash trees at the back of the barn.”

  “Which we have to do anyway,” Jen pointed out. “Build nest boxes, I mean.”

  Heidi nodded. “Yes, I know. It would be the way we’d reintroduce the hedgehogs back into the wild – by giving them a safe nest to take refuge in.”

  “And if we put them near to High Trees Farm, Barney and the others would recognize where they were and they’d soon find the new passageway which the builders would have made for them!” By now Eva was bubbling over with excitement. “What do you think, Mum?”

  Heidi pursed her lips. “I’m not sure. It’s a lot to ask. Then again, builders are meant to be sympathetic to wildlife these days.”

  “And the Wildlife Trust is very hot on the issue,” Jen agreed. “Especially when a species is under threat, which hedgehogs are.”

  Heidi sighed. “I’m not arguing with that. I’m just saying that Animal Magic has to stay on good terms with its neighbours. We can’t march in and make demands, asking Tom Ingleby to spend more money than he already is on this house for Adam.”