An animal lover with a kind heart spent a whole night caring for what she thought was a sick baby hedgehog, only to discover it was actually just a faux fur pom-pom.
The elderly woman sprang into action when she thought she saw an abandoned animal on the side of a road in England.
After a night of no movement or eating from the puffball, the kind Samaritan took it to Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire.
Janet Kotze, the wildlife hospital manager, recalled the bewildering incident: “It was the first admission of the day. The lady came in with a box, saying she 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 a fluffy creature.'”
Upon picking up the fuzzball, Kotze realized it was not an animal at all.
“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.'”
Kotze shared that the animal lover was quite embarrassed, asking if Kotze was “joking” before leaving the hospital with her box and bobble.
“She was very sweet. Bless her, her heart was in the right place,” Kotze said.
The hospital manager explained that the woman had made the mistake by not closely inspecting the hat embellishment.
She had placed what she thought was the baby animal into a cardboard box lined with newspaper and filled with cat food.
She maintained her distance during regular checks on the animal throughout the night, never getting close enough to realize it lacked ears, eyes, legs, or other animal features.
While the weight of the bobble didn’t clue her in, it was Kotze’s first sign that it wasn’t 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 amusing story on Facebook, saying the woman’s overly kind nature warmed the hearts of its staff.
Kotze urged other animal lovers to follow the woman’s example and rescue a real hedgehog if seen wandering around during the day, 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.
