I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society for sending me a complimentary electric heat pad. I haven't encountered any financial problems as yet, but with the current climate, things may become problematic so any help is a huge bonus. I swear I was on the point of crying - I know I'm not the only one who would've received one, but the timing was so perfect as things have been awful lately.

Over the last week, I split up with my long-term boyfriend. The reason for which isn't quite clear to me as yet, but we've grown apart and I don't think we're right for each other anymore. Further to this, last night I came home to an email asking for urgent advice about a Muntjac Fawn. Muntjac's aren't native to the UK so if one is captured, it cannot be released into the wild unless a licence from Defra is obtained. The vet who had the deer didn't know about the licence and, from what I've been told, cried as she put the poor animal to sleep because she didn't know what else to do. There was nothing wrong with it, except it had been orphaned. It was in Surrey so i couldn't have been any physical help, but I was gutted that I wasn't available to advise. Why? Because of the break-up, I switched off the phone and refused to check the inbox... I was selfish and unfortunately an animal has paid the price.... I assure you this will not happen again.

Another thing that quite upset me was a pigeon in London Paddington train station. I nicknamed it Igor as I sat watching it for an hour waiting for my friend to come and get me (I was kinda scared by the Tube map!) The poor thing had cotton or similar tangled around its foot, causing the toes to bend under the foot (like a fist, rather than being out straight. It walked like a gorilla i.e. like on a fist). My first instinct was to grab the pigeon and to cut away the cotton with the nail scissors in my bag. But then I stopped and evaluated the situation... Igor didn't appear to be in any discomfort and was hobbling along fine. He was feeding on scraps and, when he got spooked, was able to fly away. Add to this the danger of a condition called Pressure Necrosis if the pressure is released (the tissue around the ligature dies and the animal is highly susceptible to secondary infection) then I could actually be sentencing the bird to death. As I don't have any wildlife contacts in central London and nobody around seemed too helpful, I may have caused Igor fatal amounts of stress by carrying him around Central London (obviously didn't have my kit with me). So I decided to leave it. Throughout my weekend I came across a lot of pigeons with gammy foots and wondered... have any charities ever considered doing a mass pigeon health check in central London? Hmm...

Anyway, I'm in a better place today, looking forward to a weekend with my friends (with the TWR phone in my back pocket) forgetting all the rubbish that's going on right now. Hope everyone is well xx