Rare prickly blond to go to specialist care centre -- Slack Chat

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Subject: Rare prickly blond to go to specialist care centre

Author:
Dave

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Date Posted: 06:34:18 01/20/02 Sun

Rare prickly blond to go to specialist care centre

A blond hedgehog is to be handed over to a specialist care centre by the girl who rescued him from almost certain death.

The prickly creature, who is not an albino despite his fair appearance, has skipped hibernation and is currently being raised in the comfort of a family home.
White-spiked Alfie, who unlike red-eyed albinos has brown eyes and dark skin, is being cared for in Cambridge after being mistaken for a white stone by 12-year-old Bryony Hall.
Instead of bedding down outdoors to escape the winter frosts, Alfie is living the life of luxury with his own personal quarters in a guinea pig cage and being fed a regular diet of boiled eggs, roast chicken and cat food.
Jeanette Evans, of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said few blond hedgehogs had ever been spotted on mainland Britain because their colouring led to very early death soon after they were born.

She said: "Blond hedgehogs are a genetic variant. They are found in abundance only on the Channel Island of Alderney, where a pair was introduced in the 1960s."

Alfie has ballooned from a minuscule 310 grams when he was found in November to a healthy 840 grams during his stay at the Hall's home in Tiverton Way, Cambridge.

Bryony's mother Lilian said: "He is really cute and friendly. He takes food from our hands which is quite unusual for a wild hedgehog.

"He was underweight and scrawny when Bryony found him in November and he would be dead by now if she hadn't rescued him."

Story filed: 18:52 Saturday 19th January 2002

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