THE summer is almost over......and the August bank holiday weekend was the best part of the month!

We were busy with events, and still the little hoglets have been arriving at the hospital.

At this time of year, adult hedgehogs will be starting to feed up for their winter hibernation but many females will be having late litters.

These are the autumn juveniles, found from late September onwards, which will lack the body weight necessary to keep themselves alive during hibernation.

Keep a look-out and pick up and weigh any that look quite small.

If they weigh less than 600gms, please call us for advice on 0787 037 8207 or 01453 823 871.

Although they may be quite healthy, any smaller ones would be unlikely to survive the winter without care.

Some of the latest arrivals have been very small, including a nest of four orphans from Minchinhampton, a tiny one with dogbites on her back, and one rescued from a drain, with very sore front feet and no claws, from his efforts to free himself. He was also found to be infested with thorny-headed worm – a particularly nasty parasite. Hopefully he will be restored to health and released.

With so much going on, Carole rarely takes a day off, but she and Mary managed a trip to Buckinghamshire, to visit Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital, where they had a behind-the-scenes tour, which they found very inspiring.

Our final outdoor event of this busy summer will be Frampton Country Fair on Sunday 10th September, so we hope to see many of our friends there. In spite of some wet and windy weather, we have managed to attend all the events as planned. We will then have a break till the Christmas markets begin in November.

Our talks programme will get busy again from September – so if you would like to book a talk, please contact us via our website at helpahedgehog.org and you can keep up with our activities on Facebook and Twitter.