Newsletter

From Summer 2023 Baby hedgehogs We are also now into baby hedgehog season and as always our fosterer Carol is taking on these tricky little casualties and caring for them with great dedication. In May we took in a family of hedgehogs - a mother and four babies – after their nest was accidentally destroyed. Unfortunately, the mother hedgehog reacted badly and refused to have anything to do with her tiny babies, as sometimes happens, so Carol took over mothering duties. This was a big challenge as the babies were so young, but although the tiniest one sadly died, Carol has done a magnificent job with the other three and they are now round and fat as they should be, and have just started lapping up food for themselves. Carol has other little hog babies to care for and they are all doing well thanks to her. Sadly for the last few years we have seen fewer of these orphans, and while it might seem good to have fewer animals in trouble, this seems to be another indication that hedgehog numbers are in serious decline. Every one saved and returned to the wild when they are ready is a real success, and a worthwhile contribution to saving the species. You can also help hedgehogs by providing water in dry spells, and also food to help them particularly when we have hot dry periods that dry out the ground and make their invertebrate prey hard to find. Meaty cat food is fine for hedgehogs, or there are special hedgehog foods commercially available. You can also help hedgehogs by NOT using strimmers (awful, lethal things) or poisons (such as slug pellets and ant poison) in your garden, and making a little hole in the bottom of your fence, big enough to allow a hedgehog to come through, if there is no other way in and out of your garden. Hedgehogs need to travel through our gardens to find their food (and other hedgehogs during the mating season!) and it helps them greatly if they have free access in and out of our gardens. Newer houses tend to have fully fenced gardens these days and they are not helpful to our neighbourhood hedgehogs! Also, keep areas in your garden wild to encourage insects, birds and hedgehogs, whose prospects will greatly improve thanks to you!

From Winter 2020/2021 Another Hedgehog Helper! Our volunteer Phil has been a tremendous help in doing rescues and picking up animal casualties for us over the past year, and he is also fostering some of the juvenile hedgehogs that are too small to hibernate and so are being overwintered with us. Phil has gone to the trouble of converting a shed specifically to house some hedgehogs. He has insulated it and made it very cosy for his hedgehog visitors. Little Foxes is very fortunate to have such dedicated volunteers. We never take them for granted, and it is the joint efforts of our volunteers that mean we do not employ any staff, and are able to dedicate all the donations we receive to the care of our animal patients. We are very grateful to Phil for his kindness and support!

From Summer/Autumn 2020 Toasty A special fox cub this year is Toasty. We took in this beautiful little fox cub in late May, the victim of a road traffic accident. He had been hit on the head and was very concussed, and was also extremely thin and malnourished. Very happily he survived, against all the odds, and is an absolutely lovely boy. Once he recovered sufficiently he spent periods of time each day with other cubs, coming back inside when he was tired. This very gentle boy is being monitored all along to see how far his recovery will take him to full normality, as it is too early to say as yet. Toasty was unusually dark in colour when he came in, with coal black silky fur on his tummy and chocolate brown fur elsewhere. His fur has gradually changed and become more reddish but it is still unusual. He has such a sweet face and is a really lovely little soul. He has not made the grade for release this year as he has some residual brain damage which means he would not be able to cope in the wild. It is possible he may improve enough for release next year, but he is safe and sheltered here and he will have our care for as long as he needs it. He now interacts each day with disabled resident fox Piper.

From Spring 2020 Goose We recently took in a Greylag/crossbreed goose which had a nasty broken leg. He lived on the river near Reading, and a kind lady had noticed his plight, and was feeding him. She managed to catch hold of him, and in the struggle he whacked her temple with his wing, causing quite a bruise! But she held on and she then brought him to Little Foxes. This was before the lockdown came into force and she proudly brought him in in a large fabric bag zipped up at the top! My word, was he strong! He really did take some handling, but he did calm down after a couple of minutes, and after a short rest to recover from his agitation, his leg was splinted and he was given pain relief and antibiotics as his foot was also swollen and infected. The following day his foot was looking much better, and so he was penned outside, and he then remained calm and co-operative, eating well and resting. When the splint was removed after three and a half weeks, the leg had healed nicely. It was quite a tricky break, low on the leg, near to the foot, and it must have been very difficult for him to manage before he was rescued. As his leg healed, his foot also recovered. He was then kept long enough to strengthen his leg a bit and make sure the mend was stable, and before long he was ready for release back to where he came from. He immediately had a lovely swim which he must have enjoyed after his enforced rest! He then settled down to a good preen, and I trust he is now happily living his life as he was before his unfortunate accident. We don’t know what broke the leg, but I have speculated that it could have been caused by a collision with a boat on the river. We will never know!

From Autumn 2019 Barn Owls This year we have taken in four lovely barn owls. The first was an adult female that had been hit by a car. Although she had no broken bones she did sustain nerve damage which, although very slow, is healing well. She was joined after a few weeks by a young barn owl, probably male, who was just somewhat undernourished and weak. He responded well to normal care and as soon as they were put together, our two lovely owls bonded strongly. Although the second of the two owls is fit to go, we are holding him back while the female reaches full recovery so that they can go together. These two birds are currently in a stable which has been converted into a large aviary at one of our really lovely release sites, and they are very lucky as they will be released into a perfect area, with food of course provided for them for as long as they come for it. The third barn owl was found by a nearby road, unable to fly. I had a call from a gentleman who had seen him and asked if we could help. I was given exact directions as to where to find him beside this road, but when I got there the gentleman who had reported him had cycled back to the spot to help me, which was very considerate! There was a thick hedge by the road through which the owl had been seen disappearing. With me on one side of the hedge and the chap the other side we managed to locate this owl and luckily he was caught, not by me but by the cyclist, as the owl had emerged on his side of the hedge! This owl proved to be a juvenile which was clearly not managing very well, and was underweight. Again there were no injuries, and so my initial fear that he had been hit by a car was unfounded, he was just malnourished and consequently weak. A few weeks of rest and good food built up this owl very well, and after another few weeks to be sure he has reached a good weight, he will be released from his aviary here so that food can be left for him on top of the aviary after release.

From Spring 2019 Copper He is now in with a group of cubs and his adoration is now focused on them. He still flattens his ears and gives me a big foxy smile but he is already dodging my hand when I go to pick him up, and running about to make it difficult for me, and his instincts of wariness are developing normally. He has developed his red coat earlier than most and he has the most amazing blue eyes. All cubs have blue eyes when they first open, but these do change into anything from pale green (stunning), tawny yellow through to dark brown. Copper’s are still blue, and I am watching with great interest to see if they actually stay blue permanently. He will be a very unusual fox if they do. I just cannot look at him without smiling. He is wonderful!

From Autumn 2018 Billy the Crow During the summer a young man brought in to us a juvenile crow which he had rescued as an orphan, and hand reared. On his maiden flight, this crow had collided with a garden table and broken his leg. The leg had a straightforward fracture which was easily splinted, and mended nicely. He was housed here in an aviary with another young crow, and soon showed himself to be a character and a half. He had imprinted somewhat on his kind rescuer, which is not unusual with corvids which are reared alone, without the company of their own kind. However, I hoped this would soon wear off, as it often does. Every time I went anywhere near him he behaved like a very young bird, spreading and shaking his wings and croaking pathetically. Even if disturbed when already tucking into food from a bowl, he would hastily hop away from the food and do his “I’m starving, please feed me” act. However, he would not let me touch him and began to react more normally to human approaches. He also interacted with his fellow young crow, and with his mended leg and shiny plumage, he looked ready for release. This was a simple matter of opening up the aviary door and letting the birds go when they were ready. Within a few minutes, both birds were out and exploring. Well, that was many weeks ago, and Billy is still living in the garden and pretty much doing as he pleases in his domain. He still shakes his wings at me whenever I approach, begging for food. One of his favourite spots is a wood pile, on which he sits and comments on the events of the day. The chickens are surprisingly tolerant of him, especially considering he pinches their food from under their beaks – a cardinal sin – and easily evades any irritated pecks they aim at him. His companion crow, which is not at all tame, also lives largely in the garden, but flies out during parts of the day and occasionally does not return at night. One of the funny, if inconvenient things is that BOTH crows return to their aviary to roost for the night. Not only that, but a hen which I took as a chick (which was one of a batch born at a nursing home) also goes into the same aviary to roost, and a strange trio they are! Billy has roosted out of the aviary on a few occasions, as has the other crow, and I expect they will eventually vacate – and the hen can be physically put in to sleep with the other chickens when this happens! Billy has been known on many occasions to pop into the house, and I have seen him approach one of my resting dogs and tug his fur, sensibly keeping to the dog’s rear end and well away from the sharp end! My four dogs are largely tolerant of this impertinent bird, although Dolly, one of my Old English sheepdogs, chases him out of the house in a relatively non-aggressive way. She doesn’t hurt him but clearly thinks houses are for dogs, not blooming crows. My two cockapoos, Candy and Coral, merrily chase all jackdaws, crows, pigeons etc. into flight when they are out walking, but exercise great restraint towards Billy, clearly as a special favour to me as they can’t see the point of him at all. I expect you have seen reports of crows using tools such as twigs, a sign of great intelligence. Well, Billy gave me a first-hand example of crow intelligence – he had picked up a piece of discarded dog food which was a bit big and a bit hard for him to manage. He stalked across to the water bowl put out for passing hedgehogs, holding his piece of food in his beak, and dipped it into the water, holding it in until it had softened enough for him to eat! I watched this spellbound, and only wish I had been able to film it. I live in hope that one day he’ll start talking, like the crow at a castle in Yorkshire that asks visitors “You all right love?” in a Yorkshire accent. I’ll let you know if it happens!

From Winter 2017/2018 Jeff Jeff features on the front page of our Winter newlsetter with a jackdaw on his head, showing that this recent recruit to our ranks is the right type and fits in nicely! As I mentioned before, Jeff is now taking permanent resident corvids from us for lifetime care in his lovely aviary. He shows them real devotion and we are very lucky to have him. These birds are highly intelligent, and recent tests done by animal behaviourists have shown just how intelligent they actually are; the use of tools being just one of their talents. For example, bending a piece of wire to make a tool for extracting pieces of food put into deliberately awkward places. Science now says they are as intelligent as a four- or five-year-old child. An odd comparison, but scientists like to relate everything to humans. Jeff provides interest and mental stimulation to his birds to keep them happy and healthy.

From Summer 2017 Faith the fox cub Little vixen Faith came to us from London. She was found on the road, sitting beside her mother who had been killed by a car. She was a sad little cub, extremely depressed, very undersized, and she really had almost completely lost interest in life. She did not want to eat and could only be coaxed to take a little bit of invalid food from a syringe. I decided the only thing to do was to try and reignite her will to live, so I basically just tried to do this by showing her kindness and love – simple as that. Slowly she began, very quietly, to take a slight interest in life. One day she very gently bit the ear of a soft toy rabbit, the very first sign of playing that she had shown. She began to eat, which was a great relief. She grew a great deal and spent a lot of time outside playing with a group of cubs, which worked its usual magic and gave her real happiness and enjoyment, something no human can ever do in the same way as contact with others of their kind. faithfoxcub2.JPG She is a really lovely little vixen and it is a delight to see her playing merrily with other cubs, all of whom have, in usual fox cub style, welcomed her with huge enthusiasm and affection. I am now completely confident that she can be released with her friends. Her pleasure in the company of the other cubs is a delight to see. Interaction with one another is essential to the emotional health of foxes, and it is absolutely unfair to keep a fox on its own, which is something I do not approve of. Humans believing they can provide everything a fox wants are deluding themselves, as other fox company is so vital to the mental health and happiness of the fox.

From Winter 2016/2017 Tawny owl rescue This owl came in at the end of December as a suspected road traffic victim. It was found in an area of open land, semi-collapsed and unable to fly more than a few yards. Thankfully the couple who were walking their dog and spotted this owl were kind enough to pick it up and bring it to Little Foxes. The owl clearly had a damaged eye – very common in owls that have been hit by cars – and seemed to be very underweight. On close examination of the eye, I could see that the eyeball itself did not look damaged, which is a very good thing, as they so often are. Tawnies’ eyes are large and round, and vulnerable to injury. I cleared away the gunk from the eye, and had a really good look, noticing that the inner corner of the eye had a small area of pink swollen flesh showing. Then I spotted, just on the corner of the eyelid, what looked like a little spike of tiny feathers which were stiff with dried blood. I decided these had better be pulled out carefully in case there was pus underneath. I tugged gently, and to my amazement, the feathers were not feathers at all, because I found I was withdrawing a large thorn which came out smoothly! The poor owl had somehow – goodness knows quite how – managed to get a thorn right through the corner of its eye. As the thorn came out, the eye opened. I felt a bit like Daniel with the lion. Thankfully the thorn had missed the eyeball, and within a few days the soreness it had caused had cleared up completely. This owl needed to be built up and so did not go back to the place it was found, but fed up for three weeks and then released here. Food was provided at night on the top of the aviary he had been in, but was not taken. He went out strong and fit and I am sure he is hunting successfully for himself somewhere close by.

From Winter 2015/2016 Update Here we are once again with Spring around the corner, anticipating an influx of needy orphans. We can never tell how many will come our way, but we can be sure there will be many – we will do our best for them, and with the marvellous continuing support of our loyal members we will try and return as many as possible to the environment in which they belong. A quick update on some of last year’s orphans – all the fox cubs were released – all those that were in fosterer Helen’s care, and all those in mine. We are delighted with the reports coming back from the release sites. The two little girls Lottie and River are doing extremely well, a great relief after their very shaky start! (see pic below in the Summer article of these girls growing up). Both the baby polecats that we looked after last summer were also successfully released, fit and well and very feisty!

From Summer 2015 Polecats We have also had the pleasure of the company of a baby wild polecat this summer. A ferret rescue contacted us having taken in what was originally thought to be a ferret, but Clare, the lady who runs the rescue, realised he was probably a polecat, and sent me a picture. It was quite clear this was a proper little polecat. He was a delightful character, as they all are, very playful and lively. He has now been fully released, after spending a few days in a release pen to get used to his new surroundings. I am told he is taking the chicks left out for him and he also appears to be killing rats. Natural predation – infinitely preferable to any of the vile so-called “control” methods devised by man.

From Summer 2015 Fox cub update Last time I told you about the three tiny little female fox cubs that came in from Bermondsey. I am sorry to say that one little cub died at about four weeks of age, very suddenly, apparently of an infection that did not respond to antibiotics. The two remaining little vixens, River and Lottie, have, thankfully, survived, but it has not been plain sailing, not by any means. Throughout their time here they have battled through numerous setbacks, so much so that, even though they were inevitably compromised by how very little of their mother’s milk they had received, I do feel they may have been born slightly prematurely. They were very tiny indeed when they came in, and I have had cubs of a very similar age that have thrived a lot more consistently than these little ones. They both regularly frightened the living daylights out of me by temporarily going off their feeds, although normally they were excellent little guzzlers. They remained very small for their age. Most worrying of all, just when I thought I could relax a bit, at a stage when they were on solid food and getting on very well, they simultaneously went weak on their back legs! Every supplement under the sun (and they were already on supplementary vitamins and calcium!) was added to their diet and thankfully this also proved to be a temporary setback. Lottie retained one problem – her anal sphincter was not quite closing completely, resulting in some leakage which caused soreness. By now I was of the view that these brave little cubs would overcome whatever arose, so I kept her clean and comfortable, didn’t panic, and sure enough everything came right in that department too in due course. I gradually introduced Lottie and River to the other cubs, and as usual with cubs everyone concerned showed total delight at the introduction. They quickly showed they were robust enough to play very happily with the others, and soon they were spending all day with them, just coming back in at night for a proper rest. They have now been penned outside with the others for several weeks, and they are absolutely brilliant. They are slightly smaller than the others, but they are within a normal size range. I really feel now they can be released with the others. They have a rich mixture of colours in their fur, and Lottie is unusual in that she has pure white socks on her back legs rather than black ones. See the back page for photographs showing their gradual progress. Lottie and River’s friends are Sophie, whom I told you about last time, and Reggie and Mr Softy. Reggie came from Lambourne, and was found sitting outside a fox earth, next to his dead sibling. Two ladies walking their dogs found him, and unsure what to do, tried walking away from him, whereupon he cried piteously. They picked him up and took him home, and I believe they were quite right to do so. Something had obviously gone wrong as his sibling was above ground, dead. Reggie is a fabulously handsome boy. Mr Softy came from Hampshire, having been found lost and all alone. He is this year’s big soft lad. He is a rich dark red, a big boy, and soppy as they come. All five cubs show great fear towards strangers, as they should, but at present still regard me as a Nice Person and a Good Thing, although their interest in me is waning, exactly as is normal. It won’t be long now until release time. Helen’s four cubs (mentioned last time) have taken the award for being the most determinedly stroppy little rascals this year. They consistently hide so effectively in their run that Helen says you wouldn’t know there were any cubs in there at all. These wild characters will soon be released. We would have had more more cubs here this year, but we have been lucky enough to establish a new relationship with a fox cub carer who has now joined forces with Little Foxes. We welcome Jackie on board, who is looking after six little cubs in Hampshire which would otherwise have come to us in Oxfordshire. Jackie has lovely accommodation for her cubs, and we are delighted to have this new extension to our fox cub facilities. More pictures and further updates of the cubs next time.

From Spring 2015 First casualty of the year The first casualty we took in this year wasn’t strictly speaking a wildlife casualty. A very large Muscovy drake was brought here which had come from a wildlife reserve. A visitor had noticed that this bird was so lame that it could hardly move. She enquired about getting help for it, and a member of staff said it was their policy to let nature take its course, and that they expected a fox to catch this bird, but added that, if someone was willing to assist, they were happy for the bird to be taken away to be helped. Technically the bird was not a pet, or owned by anyone, so it sort of qualified as wildlife although Muscovies are really a domesticated breed. When I opened the box in which the drake had been transported I was taken aback by its size. It was huge! It was quite a struggle to lift him out of the box, and his wings were tremendously strong. I examined the leg and was relieved to find no broken bones. Ducks frequently do go lame – perhaps that’s why the expression “lame duck” is used – and commonly it is just a sprain, or sometimes the webbing between the toes gets damaged. A bird as large as this fellow would be in real trouble with a damaged leg, and unable to carry his own weight. Although on admittance he was quite a handful, flapping his powerful wings so strongly that I could barely hold him, he soon settled down and became a model patient. He was very sweet natured, calm and, crucially, responsive to treatment, which consisted mainly of rest, and also homeopathic remedies added to his food. The reserve he came from was really lovely, with huge lakes teeming with all sorts of wildfowl, and so after about six weeks, when he was fully better, it was best for him to go back home. His rescuer had wanted to do the release, but unfortunately in the end was not able to do so, and the days were passing. It was a shame for him to be away from his home and his friends any longer, and so our fosterer Claire very kindly took him back home. She thoroughly enjoyed the release, as he was clearly welcomed back by the other Muscovy drakes, and was soon back in the bosom of his family! The photograph shows him on release, clearly happily standing on both legs, and flapping those mighty wings!

From Spring 2014 Lexie This little cub is another fine example of the potential for recovery of wild animals, if the animal falls into hands that do not automatically reach for the lethal injection. Lexie was found on the pavement by a postal worker, early in the morning. He went over to her and picked her up, and he was very shocked by what he saw. Where one of her front legs should have been Lexie had, dangling from her shoulder, what looked like a couple of inches of filthy rag, with a broken bone amongst the mess. Something had bitten her leg off, and the assumption is it must have been a powerful dog. I must thank Andrew Bartholomew, our vet, for his very kind and very considerate care of this little cub. She was fitted in at the vets that day for an operation to remove what was left of her leg. Andrew did not cut as far back as he could as he suspected the amputation wound could become infected, and he needed to have something left to cut back if this happened. Although at first the wound stayed clean, unfortunately after a few days it began to open up. An intensive antibiotic and cleaning regime followed here at the sanctuary, and then she went back to the vet for a second operation. I think everyone at the vets fell in love with this absolutely lovely little fox. She was so tolerant, brave and calm throughout her ordeal. Her second operation scar remained clean and healthy, and she is now fully recovered, and bouncing around on three legs brilliantly well. She plays every day with other cubs, but she is not releasable now of course, so will stay here. I am sure Velvet, Rosie and Ladybird will welcome her into their group with great enthusiasm.

From Winter 2013/2014 My Experience Of Being A Wildlife Foster Carer - by Claire Beard I came across Little Foxes wildlife rescue by pure luck last year after I stumbled upon two tiny hedgehogs. Their eyes were still closed and they hadn’t developed their teeth yet, so had to be bottle fed. I spoke to Penny and asked for advice about caring for them. She asked if I felt I could try and raise them as I was showing such an interest in them. Because of her amazing advice [and mainly because of Claire’s own excellent care! – Editor] the little ones were released as big ones this spring. I have always loved wildlife, so I was honoured and overjoyed when Penny asked if I would like to become a foster carer for Little Foxes. Naturally I jumped at the chance. This year has been my first year, and I have loved every busy day of it. Thanks to Little Foxes I have been given the unique opportunity to care and nurture some incredible wildlife. Even though it is to be expected, I am still devastated when one of my animals passes. Penny is always supportive and reassuring, even when I seemed to have a month of incredibly bad luck. She assures me this just happens sometimes, and a run of bad luck is just one of those things. This year I have been very busy with baby birds. I have had lots of blackbirds, pigeons, some baby finches, a sparrow, a swallow (amazing, such a beautiful bird), baby tree creepers, baby robins, three baby moorhens (adorable), collared doves, two baby ducklings, and as the autumn approached, my absolute favourite, lots of hedgehogs! I was asked to give a talk at my local children’s’ centre about hedgehogs, which I gladly accepted because the more people that learn about them the better. I also gave a talk at my son’s school. I will take in absolutely any animal or bird that I am asked to, but I am well aware of when I am out of my depth. When this happens I will contact Penny and arrange for the animal or bird to go to her. I had to do this with the swallow as they are very fragile birds and Penny has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience. I must add because it was drilled into me, I have to release all animals and birds back into the wild, unless there is no chance they will survive. Sometimes this is incredibly hard because it is impossible not to fall in love with their little characters. I have had a fantastic although sometimes upsetting year and I can’t wait to see what incredible animals and birds I am lucky enough to care for in 2014.

From Summer/Autumn 2013 Baby Hedgehogs Hedgehog numbers are also in alarming decline, and so we are even more pleased these days when we can save the lives of these animals. Any wildlife rescuer will tell you that one of the most unpleasant jobs that comes their way is the de-fly-egging of a hedgehog. Flies will always home in on any sick or declining animal, and hedgehogs are particularly prone to the horrible depredations of the flies. Even worse than being faced with a hedgehog covered in fly eggs is being faced with a hedgehog covered in tiny maggots that have only just hatched. They get in amongst the prickles and the fur in the most adhesive and frustrating way. Anyway, in case you’re reading this eating your tea, I won’t go on, but take it from me it’s a really nasty job especially as hedgehogs, of course, roll up in a ball, making the whole procedure 1000 times more difficult! The baby hedgehog on the front of the Newsletter came in very cold, wet through and absolutely covered with fly eggs. I spent ages removing all these horrors, getting the animal warm, and administering fluids, then I finally put him in a warm cage and hoped against hope that he would survive. He was actually in a “death position”, very weak and looking a dead cert no-hoper. I looked at him last thing, checked yet again that there really were no eggs or maggots I had missed, and said to myself “he’ll never survive the night”. On checking the next morning, he was in the same position, but still breathing. A couple of hours later he was moving, very shakily, around the cage. I was amazed. I continued to give him warm fluids subcutaneously. As the day progressed, he continued to improve, and finally, the following day, he started to eat. As I write this he is still doing well, some two weeks later, and he is eating normally and putting on weight. This case is very encouraging, as so often you do your utmost to save a little hedgehog dying because he is weak and hungry, and when fly strike is evident, there is a strong chance you may fail. Even though this little hog weighed less than 100 grams when he came in, he fought back and managed to hang on. So all being well he will continue to eat us out of house and home all winter and be a fine, strong hog to go out on release in the spring.

From Spring 2013 Thank you so much! In the last Newsletter I appealed to you for donations to reimburse our funds after further expensive repairs had to be done to our large fox pens. Well, you are magnificent, and I am thrilled to report that the outlay has now been replaced, with a bit over, thanks to your kindness and generosity. I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your help, which has eased our worries greatly. With the continuing recession our income continues to be badly affected, but with support like yours I am sure we can keep taking the little ones that need us. We could not do it without you!

From Winter 2012/2013 A Red Kite Visitor As you can see from the image, we had a magnificent patient last year, a glorious red kite. The bird was found in a collapsed state in a field, and was brought over to us the same day. Bodily there did not seem to be any problem, but the bird was incapable of standing up at all. I know that red kites have a defence technique that involves them feigning death by lying prone, but even when the rescuer reached out and picked up the kite, it did not react. My conclusion was that the bird seemed to be concussed. I hoped and prayed that there would be no further complications, indicative of poisoning, as some birds of prey are so detested by ignorant bloodsporters and a few others, that they are killed illegally sometimes. Poisoning is not uncommon. To my relief, the kite seemed a little better the following day, and with warmth and care, continued to improve. I administered fluids for a couple of days, then gently force fed the bird with a little food, and after that the bird started to feed quite eagerly, taking the food by himself with no trouble. He graduated into an aviary, and after a couple of weeks more for him to strengthen, during which time the sight of him took my breath away again and again, so beautiful a sight was he, I released him to join the other kites that are numerous in my village. I provided food on the top of the aviary for a while, but he left us a strong and magnificent bird, and I have no doubt he picked up the threads of his life with no difficulty.

Kit Kat and Crunchie: Two of our 2012 fox cub casualties...see last picture below for update! Kit Kat Crunchie l-r: Kit Kat, Kitty and Twix. They are three of seven cubs we have recently released. All are in excellent health, and we have had marvellous reports of them from the release site, including four or five of the cubs having been seen playing together many evenings.

From Spring 2012
Crows are cool!

The crows are another of those species that some people choose to dislike, but the crow family is actually one of the most fascinating of all. They are extremely intelligent, and the young of such species as jackdaws, magpies and crows are very interesting to watch at the close quarters involved when you are hand rearing them.

They are noisy, demanding, and have plenty of attitude. Their intelligence comes through from the earliest days, and their development is very interesting to observe. They also have a range of crooning noises in addition to the well know squawks, and although these are very difficult to describe, they make you laugh out loud when you hear them. They seem to be talking to one another. They also make a very comical noise when fed, a sort of indignant, gulping chatter as the food goes down, which is one of the annual joys for those of us who hand feed young corvids. It is really comical, unique to the corvids, and can win over anyone who is not already a fan!

One of my fondest memories is of a young jay I hand reared who automatically starting mimicking sounds – before he went on release he could do a perfect imitation of my neighbour calling her cat, and also could mimic my sneeze to perfection. Brilliant!

From Spring 2011
Fox Cubs

At the time of writing, we have the first two cubs in, no doubt to be followed by many more.

Sponge Bob was the first to arrive, a very young orphan, still with eyes closed. He settled well, and very quickly developed a fixation with the feeding bottle which he still has. The suction power of a determined fox cub should not be underestimated, and Bob is a master of his craft. Now he is a bit older, with eyes open and managing at least four steps at a time before falling over, and with his teeth through, he is being weaned onto soft solid food, and his first attempts consisted of him trying the tried and trusted power suction approach, possibly trying to suck the bowl down along with the food inside it. It worked, and squidgy food ended up inside Bob (well at least some of it did, the rest being liberally smeared all over Bob and everything around him). He is a smashing little chap, and judging by his large paws, going to put all that food to good use by growing up to be a chunky lad.

Second arrival was a thin little waif brought to us by the receptionist of a vets some distance away. I have named this cub Pixie (left) because of his tiny wistful little face. He was ribby and very sad, but he has now blossomed into a very happy and settled little animal, very playful and particularly fond of very small soft toys that he can clamp between his teeth and parade around with great satisfaction. The effect is only spoiled when he trips over his own feet, and the small toys usually end up resting in the middle of his bowl of food, but he’s happy.

The two boys are now able to play together, and this is always a great thing for cubs, as they absolutely love one another and thrive better with company!

From Autumn 2007

Hedgehog Heroes

The humble hedgehog does not always get the appreciation it deserves. Here are a few stories of recent hedgehog visitors that show how heroic and stoic they really are.

1. A Devoted Mother

It’s a bit much when you have laboured diligently to prepare a nice snug nest for your forthcoming youngsters, gone through the business of giving birth to them, and just a couple of days later, find your whole world turned literally upside-down by some busybody humans.

Meg, a hedgehog currently resident at Little Foxes, found herself in just this frightening situation a few weeks ago. She had spent ages collecting grass and scraps of plastic and material together into a nest, and then some people decided to tidy up their garden and pulled the whole thing out of its snug position amongst some tree roots. They certainly didn’t mean to, of course, but the result was one adult and three very tiny hedgehogs in a cardboard box arriving at Little Foxes.

The little family was put into a roomy cage and a very watchful eye was kept on them to see if the mother rejected or attacked her youngsters due to the disturbance she had suffered. A mere hour after arrival, distinct sounds of suckling could be heard. Two days later they were moved into an outside pen, with a new nest (much inferior to the old one as it had been made by a mere human) and left to their own devices, apart from hearty meals provided for this devoted mother hedgehog.

Only a couple of checks have been made on the babies, as the least possible disturbance is caused in such situations, but a week ago they were checked again, and the babies are now fat and toothy and looking very good indeed. Soon they will no longer need their mother, and she will want to go off on her own again, so she will be released and the babies will be kept here until at a releasable weight. The stoicism and maternal devotion of this mother has been heart warming to witness. She has coped with adversity and fear, and just got on with the job of looking after her brood. (STOP PRESS: ALL FOUR HEDGEHOGS NOW RELEASED.)

2. I am not a rat - I am a hedgehog

Also currently resident at Little Foxes is Rat-trap, so called (perhaps not very tactfully) because she got caught in a lethal rat trap. I hate these contraptions, and I think they (and snares) should be outlawed along with gin traps as horrible examples of human brutality.

Poor old Rat-trap was minding her own business foraging about at night and no doubt decided to investigate whatever bait had been put in the trap. When she arrived here after Richard, our helper, collected her, I was disappointed to find that the householder had not done as I asked and brought her indoors away from the flies, and consequently she was not only injured, but also covered in fly eggs. I removed all of these before they turned into maggots and started eating her alive. She was given fluids and an antibiotic injection, and placed in a warm cage to recover.

That little hedgehog has doggedly got on with life, although at first unable to stand up properly withough keeling over onto her side. She attacked her food bowl with a sideways motion that worked very well, and likewise a drink of water went in sideways. She progressed within two weeks to being able to walk around her cage with only, now, the occasional fall onto her side, quickly corrected. Whether she will fully recover remains to be seen - I doubt it myself, and I expect her to retain a degree of nerve damage. If so, she will stay as a permanent resident at Little Foxes, very probably under the protective wing of Sue, one of our fosterers, who has other permanent hogs in her care.

3. Plastic hurts

The final one of our three heroes, who are just examples of many of their kind, is a little chap who had not even reached maturity before he fell foul of human filth and lack of concern. He is just one of the thousands of animals that get caught in plastic waste - in his case it was a ring of plastic from the top of a drinks can. (These should always be snipped into pieces before disposal so that they cause no harm).

This hog was taken by his rescuer into a vets, where the ring was removed, and he was then passed on to us. He had a deep welt across his stomach where the plastic had cut into him. His spines had protected his back from similar damage.

Despite having an infected wound stretching from side to side of his tum, he carried on regardless, eating and growing well while time and antibiotics healed the wound.

He is now very close to release, restored and repaired.