It turns out that it wasn’t to see its flat mate. Although it could’ve been a close call. Maddie, Saffie and I were ready to stop traffic when we saw this little fella crossing the road but he made it across safely.

Saffie and I had seen him on the way to collect Maddie from school. We followed him along the pavement for a while until he disappeared into a hedge.

As we were telling Maddie about our exciting encounter, Maddie suggested that maybe that’s why they’re called Hedgehogs; because they live in hedges. So when we got home we googled it. And she was right. Apparently, the name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge (“hedge”), because it frequents hedgerows and hoge, hogge (“hog”), because of its piglike snout.

Luckily for Maddie he reappeared as we were talking about him, and we managed to get a good close look.

So there you go. Not only did we get to see a bit of british wildlife that would normally require a night time stake out, but we also learnt something new.