The following is the latest news from the Help a Hedgehog Hospital

SO we come to the end of another year... they are going by very quickly.

The winter this far has been mainly mild – and small, underweight juveniles were still coming in just before Christmas.

This year our carers have over 155 little mouths to feed for the winter - these little ones are just too small to hibernate, so they need feeding until they reach a good weight.

They will be released in the spring.

We have a few extras this year as we have taken some in from another rescue which was overwhelmed.

A big thank you to all our friends and supporters who have generously helped to keep the hospital running throughout the year, by buying our merchandise, donating money directly or via Paypal, and sending much-needed items from our Amazon wishlist.

Our thanks are also due to local businesses who have sponsored our 2019 calendar, which helps to offset the printing costs, so more of the proceeds go directly to the care of the hedgehogs.

A plea to our Facebook friends resulted in a good supply of cat biscuit to keep the hogs going.

A few highlights from 2018 - early in the year, Waitrose customers in both Stroud and Cirencester made us the most popular cause and boosted our finances by more than £1,000.

Our first albino hoglet arrived at the end of June......followed by another a few weeks later! Blondie caused quite a lot of press interest and she was very photogenic.

Our 10th Birthday celebrations in October – David Drew pulled the winning tickets in our successful Grand Draw, and a very good evening was enjoyed at Stroud Brewery.

As I write, Tesco customers are generously supporting our coin collection – this is the last event of the year, and we will be taking a break from fundraising until the spring, when we will once again be out and about at local events. We look forward to a successful year in 2019, caring for our hedgehogs, and doing what we can to ensure their survival in Gloucestershire.