A Good Samaritan who spent 24 hours looking after a hedgehog was surprised to discover that it was actually an abandoned bobblehat.
Wildlife hospital manager Janet Kotze was assessing the alleged hedgehog after it was discovered abandoned on a pavement.
Soon after it was taken home, the object was placed inside a cardboard box and provided with a small dish of food alongside some water by the woman who found it.
It was only after taking the animal to the Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital that the truth about its identity was made clear.
Upon assessment, it was quickly discovered that what the woman – who has not been named – had assumed to be a hedgehog hoglet was actually the bobble from a bobble hat.
Explaining how the situation unfolded Janet said: “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. I opened the box and, well, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. I thought ‘It’s definitely not a hedgehog, perhaps it’s some other kind of fluffy creature’.
“I realised it wasn’t animated at all and I picked it up and obviously with the weight I could feel that it wasn’t a hedgehog or any animal at all.”
Janet added: “I put it back in the box and came out and said to the lady ‘it’s actually a bobble off a bobble hat’.
On the reaction of the concerned woman, Janet said that she was “very embarrassed” and “very sweet”. Janet said that despite the error, the woman’s heart had been “in the right place”.
Following the debacle, the woman “quickly” left with both the box and the bobble in tow.
Janet said that before the bobble emerged she “couldn’t quite believe” what she was seeing because to her “a hedgehog was obviously a hedgehog”.
On what members of the public should do in the event of finding a hedgehog, Janet advised: “It’s a golden rule that hedgehogs shouldn’t be out in the 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.”
