by Tina Nolan
“But if we ask nicely…” Eva begged. “And if we told him that one hedgehog – the hoglets’ mum – has already died because they blocked the run…”
“No, we can’t say that,” Heidi insisted. “We have to be certain of our facts, and we’re never going to know that for sure.”
“OK. But if we say Dad, Karl and I will help build the fence, and it won’t cost much…” Eva gave her mum a pleading look. “Please let me ask Mr Ingleby,” she begged. “Please, Mum – please!”
Chapter Nine
“You’re doing well with those baby hedgehogs,” Mark told Eva at lunchtime the next day. He had a day off work and was spending it helping Heidi with paperwork. Now he was taking a break, watching Eva weigh the hoglets.
“Tell Mum that,” Eva replied, placing Patch on the scales. She was still on tenterhooks, waiting for a solution to the hedgehog-versus-house debate.
“Tell me what?” Heidi asked, popping her head around the door.
“Eva’s a natural with these hedgehogs,” Mark repeated. “Look how expertly she handles them.”
“565 grams.” Eva noted Patch’s weight on a chart, then went on to weigh Scooby. “Jen taught me how to do this,” she told her dad.
“Oh yes, I’ve just seen Jen,” Heidi said, coming in properly. She closed the door behind her. “She showed me a design for nest boxes and said she’s happy to make two for this little family in her spare time.”
“586 grams. Little fatty.” Eva recorded Scooby’s weight and popped him back in his cage. “Did she mention the fence at High Trees?” she asked hopefully.
“Ah yes – the fence you’re going to put up, apparently,” Heidi said, turning to Mark. “With Karl’s help.”
“I am?” he asked. “What fence is this?”
It was Eva’s cue. She rushed in with her explanation: “Hedgehog run … builders’ trench … Adam’s house … but the hedgehogs were there first!”
Mark listened carefully. He looked at Eva’s eager face, then at Heidi. “So Karl and I have to build a fence to restore the hedgehog run, is that it?”
“If Mum agrees,” Eva cut in, looking from one to the other, willing her dad to be on her side. Inside the cage, Patch and Scooby were play-fighting with Barney and Tufty, scampering amongst the clean straw.
At last her dad spoke. “That sounds like a brilliant idea, Eva.”
“It does?” Eva’s face lit up. Now it was all down to her mum.
“I think if we ask Tom Ingleby in the right way, he won’t say no,” Mark said.
“In the right way!” Heidi insisted. “So that we still get on with our neighbours.”
“But we can ask?” Eva pleaded with her mum. “Please, please, please!”
Heidi nodded. “I’m outvoted three to one,” she acknowledged. “Go on – go ahead and build your fence. Put those babies back where they belong!”
Early that evening Mark took Eva to High Trees Farm. “Stay calm,” he told her. “Remember your manners, and if the Inglebys say no to the fence, you have to accept it with good grace.”
“OK,” Eva promised, getting out of the van. All afternoon she’d been rehearsing her speech.
“Hello, Mark. Hello, Eva.” Mrs Ingleby was at the front door watering her plants. “How are you doing with those little hedgehogs?”
“Great, thank you,” Eva replied. “Actually, that’s what we’ve come to talk to you and Mr Ingleby and Adam about.” Stay calm. Be polite. Her heart was racing.
Mrs Ingleby put down her watering can. “You don’t think there are any more babies to rescue, do you?”
“No. It’s about Adam’s house.”
The farmer’s wife tilted her head to one side. “Oh yes. Adam mentioned the hedgehog run. I’m sorry we didn’t realize what we were doing. I know you must be upset.”
“Who’s upset?” Tom Ingleby asked, appearing at the door in his slippers. “What is it, Eva? Did something happen to the hoglets?”
Eva felt a nudge from her dad, so she cleared her throat and began her speech. “No, the babies are fine, thanks, Mr Ingleby. Jen is making nest boxes for them so we can release them back into the wild.”
“And?” the farmer prompted. He could see that Eva was nervous.
“And we’d like to bring them back here, if that’s OK with you. Plus, I’ve had an idea that would help them find their way around.” Now that she’d started, Eva rushed on at full speed. Even when Mrs Ingleby looked surprised and Tom Ingleby shook his head, she gabbled on.
“A fence? You’ll build it? It won’t cost us anything?” Mr Ingleby repeated, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
“Please say yes,” Eva said. “We wouldn’t make a mess and we wouldn’t get in the way. We’d build the fence in the evenings, after the builders have gone.”
“And you think it would work?” Mrs Ingleby asked, anxiously. “Would the hedgehogs use the run if you gave it back to them?”
Eva took a deep breath. OK, she hadn’t stayed calm, but she’d definitely been polite. “We don’t know for sure, but we hope so.”
There was a silence which seemed to last for ever.
“Your girl has a lot of spirit, I’ll say that for her,” Tom said to Mark at last.
It was Mrs Ingleby who gave the verdict. “Go right ahead and build your fence, Eva. And I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it works!”
“All hands on deck!” Mark cried as they set to work next evening.
Mark, Heidi, Karl, Eva and Annie had driven to High Trees with timber posts and all the tools they needed.
“Fence posts have to be two metres apart. Measure them out. Dig holes a metre deep.”
Out came the orders from Mark. The others got busy.
“Why do the posts have to go so deep?” Annie wondered.
“To stop them blowing over. It’s windy up here,” Mark explained. “Karl and Eva, you mark these flat planks into two metre lengths. Or just a couple of centimetres over. We’ll saw the planks and hammer them horizontally into the upright posts. Here’s the measuring tape. Get cracking with that.”
“You hold steady, and I’ll mark with the felt-tip,” Karl said quickly. There were no arguments, just heads down and getting on as fast as they could. By sunset, eight fence posts stood tall and firm in the ground.
It was then that Adam Ingleby drove up the lane and got out of his car. “Can I make myself useful?” he asked. “We’ve got some spare timber stacked away in the barn. Maybe you can make use of it.”
“For sure!” Eva grabbed at the offer with both hands. “Show us where it is before it gets dark.”
Chapter Ten
“600 grams exactly!”
Barney sat on the scales peering up at Eva. He was plump and healthy, ready for a spot of adventure.
“No, don’t do that!” Eva said as she saw him poke his nose over the edge of the brass dish. She put her gloved hand out just in time to stop him from leaping on to the counter below.
“Whoa, well caught!” Jen called as she came in. “Do you need any help?”
“No thanks.” Carefully, Eva put the lively hedgehog back in his cage. “Barney weighs 600 grams. That means he’s ready!”
“Yes, but we’re not.” All week Jen had been making the nest boxes. She’d finished one – a wooden box 50 centimetres square, but still had to construct the entrance tunnel for the second. Meanwhile, Mark’s team had built the fence.
“We have to go back to the farm tonight to finish the run,” Eva told her. “It should be done by tomorrow, which is Sunday, so the builders won’t be there.”
“Likewise I need one more session on the boxes.” Jen seemed pleased that their plans were coming together. “Shall we say tomorrow for a definite release date?”
Eva nodded, but she felt her heart sink. Tomorrow? That was soon. Somehow it took her by surprise.
“I know – it’s tough,” Jen said, looking at Eva’s face. “You can’t help getting attached, no matter how hard you try.”<
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“I’m worried,” Eva confessed. “I hope the hoglets are all going to be OK.” She pictured Barney back at High Trees. He was getting too cheeky by half – the type to act without thinking. Scooby too would dash at things, while Patch and Tufty would probably follow where the others led.
“It’s the fox,” she explained. “And badgers, if there are any, which there’s bound to be.”
“Which is why I make entrance tunnels too small for badgers and foxes to squeeze through,” Jen reminded her. “And remember – hedgehogs have a brilliant self-defence system which they carry around on their backs.”
“Their prickles,” Eva nodded, still not convinced.
“So let’s have a trial run tonight, before we go up to High Trees,” Jen suggested. “You go next door and ask Annie’s mum if we can use her lawn. And while you’re doing that, I’ll get to work and finish the nest boxes.”
Exactly a week after Eva had found Barney lost and alone, she and Annie had their second session camping out.
This time it was in Annie’s garden, and they had strict instructions from Linda Brooks.
“No trampling on my flower beds. No leaving the garden under any circumstances!”
“We promise!” the girls chorused.
So, with torches and gloves at the ready, safe inside their two-man tent, they kept watch on the two hedgehog nest boxes placed carefully in the middle of Linda’s lawn.
“I hope the hoglets aren’t too scared to come out,” Annie whispered.
“Me too,” Eva agreed. “And I hope we haven’t handled them too much – made them too tame.” It was Eva’s worst worry that Barney, Patch, Scooby and Tufty wouldn’t be able to fend for themselves.
A full moon shone brightly. There was no wind. Everything was silent.
“Look!” Eva whispered. She pointed to the nearest box.
A small, pointed nose had appeared at the end of the tunnel, then a head and eventually a round, prickly body.
Annie held her hand to her lips as Barney emerged, soon followed by Patch. She and Eva watched the two hoglets sniff the grass then quickly pick up the scent of fresh cat food left in a dish at the edge of the lawn. They scuttled across and began to guzzle.
“Here comes Scooby!” Eva murmured.
“Ssshhh!” Annie warned.
Scooby and then Tufty joined Barney and Patch and tucked in.
Hardly able to keep quiet, Eva gave Annie a thumbs up. So far so good. But what would happen when the hoglets had gobbled up all the food?
Go for a wander, as hedgehogs do – that was the answer. Eva gripped her torch and prayed that Barney wouldn’t lead the others too far from the boxes.
He went to Linda’s rose bed and snuffled around while the others zigzagged here and there. He dug a little hole and found a worm. Yum!
Come back! Eva pleaded silently as he ventured off towards the hedge.
Suddenly, from the stables next door, there was a mighty eee-aawww!
“Ouch, Mickey!” Annie yelped.
His bray split the silence and sent the hoglets scurrying back across the lawn into their nest boxes. First Barney, then Patch sprinted safely down their tunnel. Then Scooby and Tufty vanished from sight.
“Cool!” Eva and Annie cried. Eva gave Annie a high-five. Better than so-far-so-good, their plan for the baby hedgehogs was working perfectly!
Chapter Eleven
The fence was built. The hedgehog run was covered with a woodchip mulch. Mark and the team had planted a few bushes and Eva had collected worms from Annie’s garden in preparation for the big event.
“You’ve done all you can,” Heidi told her on Sunday evening.
Eva and Jen had just spent an hour with Barney and the others. Eva had given them one last feed, then relined the nest boxes with fresh straw before she put the young hedgehogs back in. Now it was time to go.
“Don’t feel too sad,” Jen murmured to Eva as they carried the babies out to Mark’s van. “You’ve done such a good job on this, believe me.”
Eva’s lip trembled. “I can’t help feeling sad. I’m going to miss them so much. Especially Barney.”
“I know – but…”
Eva nodded. “…But they belong up at High Trees. I do know that – honestly!”
Mark, Jen and Eva drove in the van. Heidi took Karl and Annie in the car. It was dusk. The Inglebys were waiting by the barn to greet them.
“Operation Hedgehog successfully completed!” Tom Ingleby smiled as Eva and Annie carried the nest boxes down the new passageway, and placed them amongst the ash trees behind the barn.
“Quick as you can – it’s growing dark,” Mrs Ingleby encouraged.
“OK, but wait a sec.” Eva ran back to the van and brought out her jar of wriggling worms. She scattered them amongst the layer of woodchip in the run. “Ready!” she called, joining the others.
“Stand well back!” Adam said, taking the group downwind of the nest boxes.
It was a long wait, but it was worth it – everyone agreed.
They waited until the owl flew from the treetop into the barn, until the bats had flitted out of the rafters to catch the last insects of the day.
All was quiet under the ash trees.
Then it happened. In the dim half-light a hoglet poked his nose out of his box.
Barney! Eva recognized her favourite in a flash.
Barney the adventurer, big and strong, bravely leading the way. He snorted, as if telling the others it was safe to come out. Soon all four hedgehogs were happily snuffling and poking about in amongst the undergrowth.
Eva grinned at Annie. “So sweet!” she mouthed.
And confident, doing what hedgehogs do. Brave Barney was the first to find his way to the new run, of course.
Eva held her breath. He was sniffing and scampering on a zigzag track, smelling worms! Nose to the ground, he stepped on to the woodchip, calling for the others to follow. Eee-ee-ee! One step, two and then three – further down the run, finding his first worm, gobbling it up!
“I’m so happy I could cry!” Eva whispered through trembling lips.
“Time to go,” Heidi said, putting her arm around Eva’s shoulder. “Barney is going to be just fine, thanks to you.”
“And Jen,” Eva reminded her. She took one last look over her shoulder as they crossed the farmyard. “And Annie, and Dad and everyone! Thanks to us all, Barney is back where he belongs!”
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Text copyright © Jenny Oldfield, 2008
Illustrations copyright © Sharon Rentta, 2008
Cover illustration copyright © Simon Mendez, 2008
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.
eISBN: 978–1–84715–299–2
The right of Jenny Oldfield and Sharon Rentta to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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