This is the story of how an unlikely friend found us in the Rift Valley Kenya and made her way into our hearts.

The very fat and lovable Miss Tiggywinkle came to live with us in the bush about 2 weeks ago. Rescued by our daughter and her family as a tiny baby Miss Tiggywinkle, a prickly but cute hedgehog, flourished a little too much under their generous care. By the time she came to us she weighed 213 grams, so over weight that she had difficulty walking so it was up to us to put her on a diet. I was told that so common is this with pet hedgehogs that there are many websites dedicated to hedgehog weight loss programs. We found this funny but took it seriously for Miss Tiggy’s sake and set about to get her some exercise.

One website suggested swimming. I didn’t know that hedgehogs swam but our Miss Tiggs certainly loved her first foray in the bird bath, doing several quick laps with ease. When she gets a big older I’ll take her to the river and swim with her, documenting her progress in a future blog update.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals so exercising her meant a 4 hour night time vigil outside our tent to make sure she didn’t get lost. Now that I know she likes swimming during the day she’ll be in great shape soon, something I wish I could say for myself.

Miss Tiggy weighed in at 195 grams yesterday, a net loss of 18 grams, pretty good for the intrepid little girl. I’ll keep you posted of Miss Tiggywinkle’s progress with updated photos and stories until she is ready to make it on her own in the bush.