Jež We Can!

This is a Jež (the ž pronounced the like 's' in visual). Now, before my Croatian friends (like my wife) make fun of me for having never seen a hedgehog in real life, let me point you to wikipedia where it tells us that apart from a few people who have them as exotic pets, there are no hedgehogs in North America.

But here in Orahovica they're all over the place. And especially in our yard.

I've been working on building a fence for a month or so now. Most of the holes have been dug. (Anyone who knows about my handyman skills will be impressed at how quickly I've accomplished the first step of fence-building.)

Apparently, mid-April is the time when the common Orahovician Hedgehog ventures out into the neighborhoods and backyards to do whatever it is that hedgehogs do. But they're not very keen at walking. Yesterday, we found five different hedgehogs in our 50 centimeter deep fence holes - two of whom were dead.

Fortunately my wife came to the rescue of the other three who had survived their plunge and they have been taken to a grassy meadow free of any sudden drops.

A very valuable lesson has been learned here. If you're going to dig fence holes, it's vital to the well-being of the local wildlife to fill those holes in quickly.