Sometimes the only one who can come to the rescue is you. Sharon and Andy Longhurst learned that in 2022 when they found an ailing hedgehog near their home in Fife, Scotland. They called the SPCA but were told no one could come get it. They found another one two weeks later. In both cases, the couple drove 50 miles to deliver the hedgehogs to a wildlife center. “That started us thinking: People aren’t going to do this,” Sharon Longhurst told The Washington Post. “People aren’t going to make that journey.” So they launched an animal clinic in their home. They named it Burntisland Hedgehog Haven. Since then, they have rescued 622 hedgehogs. They do this while working full-time. Sharon is a school crossing guard and Andy is a bus driver. But that does not stop them from spending sleepless nights caring for these nocturnal animals. The Longhursts sought training to learn how to care for hedgehogs. The small, woodland creatures are threatened by development, traffic, shrinking food supplies, and climate change. At first, the Longhursts bought equipment with their own money. But now they are now funded totally by donations to their clinic. That includes “intensive care units” with heated incubators and microscopes to check for parasites. They now have 18 volunteers on hand to help. The Longhursts have treated hedgehogs for everything from hypothermia and infestations to getting cut by garden tools and being bitten by dogs. When the animals recover, the couple releases them back where they were found. "We will do all we can for a hedgehog, if it needs X-rays, investigations done we will try and do all we can to get that hedgehog healthy and back out in the wild," Sharon Longhurst told the BBC. "We love hedgehogs so much and there isn't enough help out there." Thought Question: What kind of cause would you be willing to make space for in your own life, and why? Gif of hedgehog from Giphy.
