The good Samaritan’s error became a viral sensation. Now, the charity says it needs support for our real prickly friends

March 2024: a fever dream of Tory budgets, Princess of Wales conspiracy theories and, er, hedgehogs that turned out to be hat bobbles. Yes, as Jeremy Hunt gripped the red budget box for the last time, one tale of goodwill gripped our hearts – that of the good Samaritan who mistook a rogue hat bobble on a Cheshire pavement for a sickly hedgehog, and rushed it to animal A&E.

Lost? So was the little guy in question. He was found abandoned on the street in the middle of the day, far from his hedgehog family (a group of hedgehogs is called a prickle, FYI). Except, well, not quite.