We, humans, are lucky enough to share our world with all sorts of incredible animals, big and small.
Sometimes, however, it can be tough on the animals.
While I like to think most of us wouldn’t hurt an animal unless it was absolutely necessary, creatures of all shapes and sizes have been known to end up in tough situations just by stumbling into populous areas, as we saw with this baby elephant that fell down a well.
For wild animals living in very residential countries like England, it can be especially tricky to find a safe place to make a home, since there’s not very much open land left.
Small and mid-size creatures like foxes, squirrels, and badgers often find a way to make things work, but occasionally end up as accidental victims of traffic, housing developments, and other hazards of living on the periphery of humans.
Fortunately, St Tiggywinkles Animal Hospital in Buckinghamshire, UK, is there to help by nursing the native wildlife of the area back to health whenever necessary!
Scroll through the gallery below to learn how the hospital helps the animal community and more about the creatures living there!
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Facebook/ St Tiggywinkles
Located in Buckinghamshire, this institute was established to help protect vulnerable wildlife of all stripes, with a special focus on the prickly, roly-poly hedgehogs that make England their home.
St Tiggywinkles is named for the iconic hedgehog character created by Beatrix Potter.
Alongside better-known literary characters like Peter Rabbit and Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is a friendly woodland creature who befriends a human being.
The hospital was established almost accidentally in 1978, when a couple, Les and Sue Stocker, and their son Colin began taking in wild creatures that needed a helping hand.
The family had noticed that there weren’t really any facilities in the area that catered to the treatment of wild animals.
With a can-do attitude and indomitable spirit, the family set about transforming their own home into just such a space.
In the history of the hospital on its website, the family describes starting the institution as a chaotic trial by fire.
They didn’t have formal medical training, just a desire to help however they could.
On the website, the origins were described evocatively, saying, “Every patient was an unknown, and together with a local sympathetic vet, they learnt the idiosyncrasies of wild animals that demand such a different regime to that required by their domestic counterparts.”
Over the years, the Stockers continued learning more and more about the creatures in their community and became a valuable resource for the local wildlife.
They became a government charitable organization in the early 1980s, which also coincided with a public campaign to help protect the hedgehog population across the United Kingdom.
A drought in 1984 dramatically affected the region’s hedgehogs, so it became hugely important, at Tiggywinkles and elsewhere, to support the nation’s prickliest and most adorable residents.
Today, Tiggywinkles still looks after a wide range of local hedgehogs.
Some have been injured in gardening accidents or on the road, others simply need a safe place to give birth to a new litter of adorable hedgehog babies.
No matter what, every hedgehog that goes to Tiggywinkles is given the best care possible, with the goal of rehabilitating the animals and returning them to the wild.
Of course, it’s not just hedgehogs that find sanctuary at Tiggywinkles.
The hospital also takes in every other kind of wild creature native to this corner of England, from backyard birds to fox cubs.
The hospital gently cares for and rehabilitates any animal that need their care, always with the goal of returning the creature back to the wild.
Today, the hospital caters most often to deer, badgers, and, of course, hedgehogs.
Every animal that heals in the hospital is released, unless they won’t be able to survive in the wild.
Animals that can’t go back into the wild remain at the hospital as permanent guests, and become part of their volunteering and teaching programs.
If you’re tickled by this adorable animal hospital, make sure to SHARE with fellow animal lovers!
