Woman nurses 'baby hedgehog' overnight only to discover it's actually a hat bobble
Look, we’ve all been there, sometimes we see something in the distance that looks like a totally other thing.
A plastic bag at the edge of the pavement looks like a cat every now and again or maybe you think you’ve just waved at your mate but it’s someone else entirely.
But this woman went one further with her mix-up, when she spent the night nursing a ‘baby hedgehog’.
She took the presumed cute little hoglet (yes, that’s genuinely what they’re called) to the Lower Moss Nature Reserve and Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire last week.
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And here, manager Janet Kotze quickly whisked the baby creature through to triage.
The little patient had been carried in a cardboard box by the woman who said she’d found it on the pavement the day before.
And the good Samaritan even lined the box with newspaper and placed a small dish of food to try and help the animal along.
But when Kotze opened the box at the hospital, she ‘couldn’t believe what she was seeing’.
As soon as she picked up the lifeless thing, she realised it was actually just the fluffy bit from the top of a hat.
And understandably, the woman who brought it in was pretty embarrassed as she said ‘you’re joking’ before leaving with the box - and hat bobble - under her arm.
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After delivering the news the mortified woman exclaimed 'you're joking' before shuffling off with the box, and bobble, under her arm.
Kotze explained: “It was the first admission of the day. The lady came in with a box, she said she had found this baby hedgehog on the pavement and it was cold and she picked it up.
"I was alarmed as it's very early for baby hedgehogs so I was a bit concerned. I took the box from her and took it through to triage, which is a separate room.”
The hospital manager added the woman’s ‘heart was in the right place’, but ‘left quite quickly’ after being ‘very embarrassed’ by her mistake.
"I found it funny afterwards but I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing because to me a hedgehog is obviously a hedgehog,” Kotze added.
"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."
The animal expert said if you do see a real hedgehog out in the daytime, they should be taken to a rescue as it's a sign they're in distress.
Janet said: "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."
Jess Battison