British woman mistakes hat pom pom for baby hedgehog

Lifestyle

By Katherine Donlevy

A tenderhearted animal lover spent an entire night tending to what she thought was a sick baby hedgehog — only to find out it was nothing more than a faux fur pom-pom.

The elderly woman had rushed into action when she spotted what she believed was an abandoned critter on the side of a road in England.

After a night without witnessing the puffball move or eat, the good Samaritan rushed it to Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire.

“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,” wildlife hospital manager Janet Kotze recalled about the bewildering incident.

“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 a fluffy creature.’”

As soon as she picked up the fuzzball, Kotze realized that’s precisely what it was.

“I realized 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,” Kotze said.

“I put it back in the box and came out and said to the lady, ‘It’s actually a bobble off a bobble hat.’”

The animal lover was very embarrassed, according to Kotze, asking whether the manager was “joking” before shuffling out of the hospital with her box and bobble.

“She was very sweet. Bless her, her heart was in the right place,” Kotze said.

According to the hospital manager, the animal lover had made the mistake by simply not looking closely enough at the hat embellishment.

She had swept what she thought was the baby animal into a cardboard box, which she lined with newspaper and stocked with cat food.

She tried to keep her distance during her regular checks on the animal throughout the night to allow it to recover, never allowing herself close enough to realize that it didn’t have any ears, eyes, legs or other animalistic features.

The weight of the bobble didn’t seem to tip her off, though it was Kotze’s first indication that she wasn’t dealing with a hedgehog.

“I would have immediately known from the weight — a bobble weighs nothing but bless her heart was in the right place,” Kotze said.

“I don’t think she’ll make the same mistake again, I think she’ll check next time.”

The Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital shared the hilarious tale on Facebook over the weekend, saying the woman’s overly good nature melted the hearts of its staff.

Kotze reminded other animal lovers to follow in the woman’s footsteps and rescue a real hedgehog if spotted wandering around during the daytime, which is a sign that the animal is in distress.

“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,” she wrote.