Henrietta Hedgehog

Henrietta Hedgehog was feeling very old

The wind was biting, and the days were getting cold

The ground was parched and dry without a drop of rain

And Henrietta’s children were starting to complain

So, she called to all the hedgehogs to meet and gather round

‘It’s time we moved away,’ she said and search for fresher ground

Where food is available and the water’s crystal clear

Now our garden’s looking bare so there’s no point staying here.’

But then Harry Humphrey hedgehog who used to live nearby

Whose quills had grown so long he often toppled on his side

Snuffled as he spoke up and said ‘my home is just bone dry

I agree with Henrietta, we can’t stay here,’ he sighed.

Now this was quite surprising because they never had agreed

On anything they talked about, so this was news indeed.

So, as daylight darkened with not a cloud across the sky

The hedgehogs saw Henrietta change the colour of her eyes

They started off deep brown, but her worries turned them pink.

‘I have a new idea,’ she said ‘so, tell me what you think.

We have to cross the fields and find new water pools to drink.’

‘But,’ they said, ‘there’s rubbish there which makes a mighty stink.’

Weasels, stoats and rats were known to live among the weeds

But badgers were the biggest threat between the water reeds

Near muddy streams and water holes where they used to feed.

‘It’s too scary,’ some hedgehogs said, the smallest of their breed.

‘But the worms are very scarce, and the beetles are no more

If you stay, you’ll end up hungry, weak, and feeling sore

Slugs are disappearing and insects can’t be seen

Tonight, we have to go when we see the first moonbeam.’

So, in the dark between dry twigs and brittle curled up leaves

Off she set while nervous hedgehogs like poor reluctant thieves

Shuffled underneath the fence into the frightening field

As field mice ran for safety and the air was full of squeals.

The night seemed never ending and Henrietta hedgehog

Sniffed greedy feeding foxes in piles of hollow logs.

But she insisted bravely ‘together we are strong,

Look after one another and it won’t be very long

Before we find a place to live where we can all belong.’

So, onto dried out muddy banks and running over fronds

This coterie of hedgehogs, in large groups, nose to tail

Ran past empty paint pots, tent pegs, wire, and nails.

Until they reached large houses on the far side of a ditch

Near allotments with root vegetables  looking very rich

Henrietta was exhausted when she called out ‘we’ve arrived

I was afraid we would be eaten but we’ve managed to survive.’

She stood by Harry Humphrey who looked older by the day

And became quite sad and lonely when he passed away

But her children rallied round her, and Spring was fresh with rain

And Henrietta, now frail and sickly felt happy once again.

So, when time came, and her children had families of their own

They never forgot her wisdom and the path they had been shown.

She had led them out of danger and tales will still be told

How she saved the hedgehogs, the young ones and the old.

So, the hedgehogs in your garden may in the past have known

About the peril of that journey and the courage that had grown

In Henrietta and as she would say, in Harry Humphrey too

So, at night-time leave out fresh fruit which hedgehogs love to chew.