Longframlington rescue charity to release a small army of hedgehogs into the wild

Carole Catchpole, who converted her garage in Longframlington to help injured hedgehogs, is hoping to release around 200 of the animals back to where they were rescued.

Carole currently has around 130 hedgehogs in her care and around 40 in foster homes, all of who were rescued from around Northumberland.

When in the sanctuary, the animals are taken outside, weighed, checked and fed daily to get them healthy enough to live in the wild.

Carole and volunteers will be releasing the hedgehogs back to the areas that they were rescued from as soon as the weather gets brighter, which the team is hoping to be this weekend.

Carole, 79, said: “They’re all ready to be released now but we’re waiting for good weather which is due to start changing for the better this Saturday.

"It will take a few days to release them all as we want to be released where they came from.”

After being released, Carole is hoping the hedgehogs thrive in the wild and that people are mindful of them.

She said: “We do encourage people to put out kitten biscuits and water at night because if hedgehogs have just come out of hibernation or we get extremely dry weather they find it hard to find their natural source of food.

"We also advice people to take a great deal of care when they’re gardening – don’t use a strimmer or a lawnmower until you’ve checked an area first because some hedgehogs will go to sleep in grass. We’ve already had two very serious strimmer injuries in but thankfully they will be released soon.

"We also ask people to be careful when moving their garden shed or taking any tools to the compost bin.”

Northumbrian Hedgehog Rescue started in 1998 after Carole sadly lost her husband.

She added: “It’s our silver anniversary this year, 25 years.

"I’ve always had an interest in hedgehogs, well from when we first moved to this house and we spotted hedgehogs in the garden. We started feeding them and helping them and then when my husband died a little hedgehog came into my garden that night who needed help so it all started from there.”