2.50 am. The malodorous hedgehog wanders across the lane and arrives in the garden. The PON pups start howling and rattling their pen. '' Right ! That does it " says ' the font ' before adding " I'm not losing another nights sleep ".
Angus is sent off to find thick gardening gloves , a flashlight and a cardboard box .Bob and Sophie are sent out into the stygian darkness to find the visitor. Finally, amid whoops of delight and cartwheels of canine joy , the hedgehog is located and carefully put in the cardboard box. The thick gardening gloves proving their worth. ' The font ' gets the little Skoda out of the barn and drives the tightly curled up scavenger off down the hill. There, in the wildflower meadow by the walnut grove, he is released. By 3.20 silence has returned to our little patch of paradise.
This morning Bob and Sophie race round the garden looking for the intruder. They then chew on a fallen branch from the oak tree before settling down for a lengthy nap. Bob on the terrace, Sophie in the kitchen.Time to dream about saving their family from prickly intruders.
' The font ' wonders how long it will take the hedgehog to find his way back up the hill. Angus wonders what the villagers must be thinking about the bizarre nocturnal behaviour of the foreigners in the rickety old farmhouse.
