I love all animals and given the choice and funds, I would have a huge animal sanctuary in the countryside catering for all creatures great and small who need a home.
Unless I win the lottery, I have to make do with animals I do have, namely a gorgeous dog called Jasper and a number of hedgehogs who live and/or visit our garden every night now that their hibernation period is over.

I say a lovely dog, but he was less than gorgeous when he came back from a walk with his Daddy last Sunday. When he left, Jasper was a light golden colour, fluffy with a swishy plume of a tail. When he came back 2 hours later he was…… What can I say?

He had certainly changed colour quite dramatically, although he was clever in keeping his favourite ball very clean in comparison!

He is great company and he is also very good at sniffing out the hedgehogs when they appear.

Over the past few weeks, I have spied more and more hedgehogs running around the garden enjoying the warmer, dry weather and the cat food and mealworms which I feed them. I followed one after he finished eating and am thrilled to learn that he has made his nest in the ground-floor space of the insect house which I built last year. Lets hope it becomes a family home this spring and we have some hedgehog babies (urchins)to boost numbers.