Hazardous Creatures.

When I was doing my twilight tasks this evening, I found my steps being constantly dogged by small critters getting in the way – a small salamander and the two resident baby hedgehogs, Harry and Hermione. Well, neither salamanders nor baby hedgehogs are all that easy to see in the gathering gloom of dusk, and one obviously doesn’t like to tread on either of them, however inadvertently.

The salamander was easily dealt with. He got picked up and placed under some growth on the garden. But what do you do about hedgehogs which keep turning up just where you want to sweep or walk or whatever? I was told a very long time ago:

‘Never pick up a hedgehog. They’re absolutely riddled with fleas, so you’ll end up either scratching yourself to nothing or succumbing to severe loss of blood.’

Such statements make quite an impression when you’re at an impressionable age, so I’ve never picked up a hedgehog. A bit wimpy, but there you are. In consequence, Harry and Hermione got stepped over carefully and with a commendable lack of complaint

Woman with a death wish