Quattro is settling in... and a new visitor is greeted with violence

The night after moving into 9a in the back garden, Quattro was battered by Tog, and he seems to have decided that the risk of being manhandled by humans is not as bad as being attacked by another hedgehog, as he only spent that one night and day in 9a before moving back into 9f, where he has been lodging since. The nest box there is quite tightly packed with straw, as it had been prepared for a hibernating hedgehog, in case one felt the need for accommodation, and Quattro now seems to be tunnelling into it. During the day he seems to be quite busy, and there seems to be quite a lot of straw finding its way into the tunnel and even outside.

He seems quite lazy, just getting up for a snack every so often during the evening, before going back to bed again, perhaps having nipped out for a drink and a trip to the loo. He finally goes out about 1 or 2 am, getting back about 5:30, just as it is starting to get light. Last night he left 9f about 1:30, and appeared at the ATM about 20 minutes later. Unfortunately, he'd only got about a metre into the garden (just out of sight of the ATM cam) when he was attacked by Tog. He left again.

Tog was in fine fettle - he'd just finished sorting out our newest visitor. We have noticed over the last couple of days that Twearly walks straight past 9e - he seems to have had too many bad experiences around there with Tog, and Quattro hadn't arrived, so we were surprised to see a hedgehog eating in 9e. Tog was also surprised, and went to sort him out. Tog dashed in to 9e and the newcomer curled up. Unfortunately, Tog was trying to push him out of the door, but couldn't as he was too big curled up. We had visions of them being stuck there all night, when the only way to get out was to let the new chap uncurl, and Tog wouldn't let him. However, Tog is quite a smart cookie and after a short time pushed him away from the door, and Tog went for a drink.

Tog then went out via the ATM, meeting Quattro on the way. Meanwhile, the newcomer went down to the water for a drink before heading for the 9a feeder - obviously another of last year's regulars who knows his way around.

With Tog out of the garden, Quattro headed down for the water. He'd only been there a few minutes when his nose went up in the air and he started sniffing - and headed off in the direction of 9a.

We thought this was going to a nice friendly meeting, right in front of the Tunnelcam. Unfortunately, we realised this was not to be when the newcomer "frowned" in the direction of Quattro - and Quattro sent him flying. After a major tussle Quattro won.

We'll be giving the newcomer a check-up when we can.

Two nights ago we gave Tog his second check-up, to see how he was doing. He was eating by the water in the new bowl, and he didn't curl up, even when he was first picked up. He did curl up as we brought him in, but uncurled fairly soon, and we confirmed that he is, indeed, as boy. He weighed 1185g, compared 1060g when we first checked him on 5th March. We removed a large tick from his nose, and touched up his paintwork before replacing him.

We now have four hedgehogs visiting. We haven't seen Bailout, and we don't seem to have Alfie yet, as we are sure that he would head straight for 9b, so we could be getting quite busy this year.