Every spring hedgehogs start visiting my garden. I don’t really know why, are they looking for a companion or they search for snails and easy food but in late May/ early June they are here. Usually, this period lasts around 2 weeks in which I have to be on the lookout during the evening and keep moving them back to the woods. I don’t mind them in my garden, but Srećko is not happy about their visits and he keeps on barking on them until I get them out. Usually, they get stuck in my flower bed so I get them out and return them to the woods in a plastic bucket. 

This year one of the visitors is a bit different. One of the hedgehogs, nicknamed Sonic keeps on returning to the yard no matter how many times I get him out. He kept on returning to the leftover buckets, eating the leftover food we had in them so I emptied the buckets and moved them to the other spot, but he kept on returning. 

So I had no other choice but to start to feed our new visitor. I thought that it would be wiser to leave him food outside the yard than to have him keep on entering the yard in search of the food. His returning every night could mean potential injury both for Sonic and Srećko. 

I decided that the good spot for the bowl with food would be next to a big wild cherry tree next to our fence because that’s usually the spot where wild animals come out of the woods. If he wasn’t hungry some other animal would eat the cat food that I left him. 

The next morning the bowls were empty, but I wasn’t sure if it was Sonic who ate it or the village cats had a nibble. My doubts were gone the next evening when I brought food. Sonic was sitting few meters away from me waiting for food. He hissed at me when I got too close, but as soon as I placed the bowl down his little nose started swinging left and right and in a couple of seconds he was chewing upon the food. 

This was a week ago and I’ve been feeding him every night. Sometimes he eats everything, sometimes he eats half and finishes the other half the next night, sometimes I hear him coming, but I haven’t seen him since. He doesn’t show up to the yard anymore and Srećko is not annoyed as much.