Our Hedgehog, the Gymnast

My husband is an avid gardener and after 15 years of being away more than he was home, he'd been eagerly looking forward to this first spring of his retirement to get serious about it. He started with a sturdy fence, attractive wood with metal mesh to keep out the smaller critters. He buried the lower part underground to keep them from tunneling in. And he got the plants started. He was somewhat discouraged after all of this when one day he found that the tops of all the sugar snap peas and string beans had been eaten. How? Deer were the only animals he couldn't be sure the fence would keep out, but there were no hoof prints in the soil. About a week later, he came inside briefly and left the gate open. When he returned, he found our old nemesis, the hedgehog, happily munching away. I've written about this critter before (see Garden Pests, April 10, 2019). My husband swears that all the time he'd been working on the garden he hadn't seen a hint of the hedgehog and assumed it had finally found a new home. But, no, it had burrowed into a dark corner under the deck and was biding its time He grabbed the hose to chase it out of the garden. But instead of scooting out the gate, this big, awkward, lump of fur leaped up onto a raised bed--3-1/2 feet off the ground, then jumped through the space between the top of the fence and the bottom of the deck. After taking in this information, I suddenly pictured it getting into the garden the first time when the gate was closed. It had to have jumped that 3-1/2 feet from the ground and somehow scrambled over the edge of the fence onto the raised bed. The deck isn't big enough to provide much of a running start. It had to have practically levitated. I miss seeing all the good stuff, but my husband says this hedgehog is the size of a large, over-stuffed bed pillow and has to weigh 40 pounds. Much as I hate the critter destroying the garden, I am impressed by its strength and agility. But not enough to share.