F.R.I.E.N.D. Animal Rescue

17th July.

It’s been all go here, what with one thing and another, and little Elliot (hedgehog) had to go back to the vet. He suddenly developed a huge swelling over the primary injury site and it looked like a big, fat abscess was developing over his left eye socket.

You may remember that Elliot has no eyes and it was established between us and the vet – in a best guess manner – that birds had probably pecked them out as he had lain injured in the road following being hit by a car. Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?

The vet agreed that the lump was most likely an abscess, the original infection had probably not been eradicated and had been lurking in the background waiting for its chance. Oh, nature, what a wonderful thing!!

The vet was helpful but not awfully positive comparing poor old Elliot’s lump to what happens in Guinea pigs with orbital abscesses which appears to be a bum-sucks scenario.
Well, not being one to give up I went for the antibiotic option and I’m pleased to say that one week on he’s just fine, eating like a demon and the lump seems to be softening and being reabsorbed. Phew, that’s a relief!!

The other day someone brought us a cardboard box with a critter in that had been found in the barn where they work. A casualty, of course, but what could it be?? It was, on opening the lid, another male hedgie-pig.
This was starting to look like a habit!!

On first inspection he had a massive scab covering most of the front of his face but, luckily, his eyes were open and clearly functioning as they followed me in beady anticipation and terror.
Big fat, grey/white ticks sat like a crown around his little head tailing off into a tiny, encrusted, black pearl necklace under his chin. Snotty bubbles blew from his nose and it was evident that this little guy was very, very ill and in desperate need of treatment.

So off we went, once again, to the vet who was lovely but not hopeful. She was very much in favour of putting him to sleep on first inspection but that didn’t sit with me as he was bright.
We agreed on a course of treatment and she took him off to administer sub-cut fluids, get rid of some of the ticks and give his scabby face a clean up. Bless her, I actually felt for her when she called me back in as half his nose had come away as she’d cleaned it. She was genuinely horrified.
I remained bizarrely chipper and totally resolute pointing out that I’d seen all this before in a pig (a real one) who had a sustained a massive facial injury as a tiny piglet prior to coming to us. He is now a 40 stone, robust and very healthy pig that doesn’t know that he looks different to the rest of the gang.

So, Piggy, as they named him at the vets came home with his antibiotics, his fleas, lice and more ticks than I’ve ever seen on one animal in my entire life and appears to be making a recovery. My tick hook is my new best friend and one by one I’m getting the devils. Bless him, he’s been dusted in hedgehog friendly parasite products and is charging around like a good’n! His face looks like it’s on the mend and he’s started munching a bit of nosh.

We really don’t know what will happen with little Piggy. Maybe he’ll survive and maybe he won’t. The only thing that I know is that his failure will not be due to lack of care on our part.
We suspect that his little face was torn open by a strimmer but we will do our utmost to get him back to a state of health where he can be released back into the wild. Given his problems that could easily be next year or he may never be fit for release. Equally he might die but that is a chance that we are prepared to take and a big financial commitment that we have made despite the odds.

We are not a fancy pants, all singing, all dancing sanctuary. We are just a small place with a no kill policy and if there is even a glimmer of hope then we run with it.

PLEASE SUPPORT US.

12th July.

I was only thinking, the other day, about just how clever pigs are. They really are quite something else when it comes down to it.

We’ve had pigs that have learnt to do all sorts of tricks based on observation which is something that doesn’t seem to be apparent in other species that I’ve encountered. Since pigs are presumed to be the forth most intelligent species of mammal on Earth then you can hardly accuse me of not getting out enough on that count!

I just love pigs and the little babies make everyone smile without doing anything in particular. They’re cheeky, funny and cute. They squeal when you touch them and jump six inches in the air for nothing but should they anticipate a treat in your pocket then that fear disappears and they’ll be over you like a rash!
If you stretch out in the sunshine and there are piglets on the horizon so they’ll be there in a jiffy and after a bit of an investigation they’ll snuggle into your body and go right off to sleep.
I can tell you that if you relax with them you may well have a sleep more peaceful than you could ever believe.

Rachel is a pig that came to me a very thin, poorly little baby some years ago. Her little bones poked through her rough, thickened skin and she looked awful. She was so small for her two months of age and really could have passed for a three week old piglet. Her little body was covered in mangy scabs and her skin hung in dehydrated folds. I knew that I had to take her.

Rachel was far too tiny, poorly and infectious to go out with the other pigs and so I decided to keep her in with me. At the time I was living alone (in the human context) in a mobile home on the sanctuary and it was an ideal way of caring for her.

Pigs are very easy to care for if they are well and even the poorly ones tend to respond extremely well to TLC. Pigs love food, comfort and cuddles. They are as simple as us! It took Rachel little more than a 24hrs to adapt to the change and very quickly she was very much at home.

I think that people tend to view all of this as a one way street. All about the good old humans and what we do for the animals but that isn’t true.

One night in our caravan home I fell asleep and was only awoken by my little Rachel going mad, nudging my leg and screaming at me. At first I tried to ignore her but she was so persistent that I finally awoke and paid her the attention that she demanded.

It was only then that I discovered that our mobile home was burning down and Rachel was trying to save my life.

6th July.

We’ve had a mighty busy couple of weeks rendering me unable to write the old blog. For that I apologise.

As you will know, recently we had our own little festival with fantastic live bands that supported us 100%. It was a marvellous affair and everyone had a great time. I have to confess to being really worried about it all but everyone was fantastic and I really felt proud of the way they all came together for us.
This last weekend we were fortunate enough to be given a pitch at the Hop Farm Festival that is based just round the corner from us which is a proper and utterly professional affair.

When you don’t know anything about such things then it’s a bit of an eye-opener to see how the big guys do it and boy, oh, boy did they do it! They had Bob Dylan headlining and the list of names just went on and on with some people coming just to see the likes of Blondie. Everyone seemed to be having a ball, the music pumped into the night and the so the daftness went on.

Following paying about £130 to get a weekend ticket, getting a beer was probably best part of an hour queue (at £3.80 per pint plus £2 deposit on a glass only refundable the next day – bad luck it you were only there for the day!) and I noticed with some amusement that the queue for the toilet was almost directly opposite and equally as long. To get free water from a tap was the same again so it seemed that a sensible drinker in the scorching heat faced the eternal triangle and could easily queue for a beer, decide to pace themselves with a water then need a pee… With the best will in the world the toilets stank and the whole experience was not good. So, all of that would probably take at least a couple of hours just in time to start again! No need to bother with anything as dull as the music and, to me, it all seemed a bit mad.

I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve never seen such a horrible mess on the ground. There was a van selling spit roast chickens and the place was littered with half eaten carcasses to the point that you couldn’t walk without encountering one in an instant. It was revolting and I genuinely felt sorry for the people that had to clean up.
I felt ashamed for the human race.

All of this took me back to our beautiful event. Any of our bands would have stood proud on the stages of the Hop Farm and I say that with confidence. They looked and sounded excellent and after theirs sets were happy to have a beer with the audience. No security required or asked for. It was a truly beautiful affair and we were privileged to have hosted such an event for up and coming bands. I hope that they remember us when they’re famous!

Our toilets were clean (I had several people tell me that they were the best ‘festi’ toilets that they’d ever encountered!!!) the bands were brilliant, the food was great, as was the beer and everyone had a great time.

We will be doing it again, courtesy of our friends who care about the animals so, please, once we have a provisional date then do pencil us in for next year. It’ll be even more fun then!!!