Yoda and Tiggy Under the Trees K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

Mr Yoda in all his prickly glory ...

Friday the 27th was 'R' Day - the day that I planned to release Yoda and Tiggy. I had checked them both earlier in the week and they were so ready to go with a full set of beautiful quills and plenty of meat on their bones; weighing in at 1364gms and 1250gms respectively.

Although winter releases aren't generally recommended, this winter; although very wet, has for the most part been quite mild so I had been keeping an eye on the 10 day forecast to see if we could find a window of opportunity during which to set these two free. The most important factor being a decent period where the over night low wasn't going to dip below 5c. It seemed Lady Luck was with us and after conferring with the release site folk, Friday afternoon was earmarked for the big event.

After popping the hoggies into their prepared release boxes - sturdy cardboard boxes, covered with bubblewrap and stuffed full of hay, I headed out to the release site which was on a farm in a stand of 20yr old Blackwood trees. Upon arriving I had a few reservations but we went ahead as the night was closing in and I wanted to get them settled before dusk fled. I found a pile of fallen branches and tucked them in underneath it in their boxes, adding more branches to the pile over the boxes as there were cattle in the wood and not only were they very curious but I'm sure they could smell the hay in the boxes and were just a bit too close for comfort...

After I was reasonably satisfied that the boxes were secure and had put their 'supper' down for them I headed back up to the farm house, however I had quite grave reservations about the cattle and all sorts of awful scenarios were playing through my head....

Yoda the day before his release

Thankfully I met the property's owner on the way up the hill and when I expressed my concerns she admitted the cattle were due to be moved out of the wood, so we headed back down and herded them out into an adjoining paddock. 
PHEW!
 As we chatted on our way back up to the house we passed the chicken coop and she told me often finds hedgehogs asleep in the hay inside and that it didn't bother her. Hmmm, this would have been a much better release area but what was done was done and it was too dark to safely venture back down to move the hoggies. But if we release there in future this is where I will suggest we put the release boxes....

and the beautiful Mistress Tiggy

 The boxes were checked the following morning and there was no sign that either hog had ventured out - no tunnel in the hay of the doorways and none of the food I had left had been eaten. I am not too surprised by this as there was heavy rain that night and hoggies really hate heavy rain ....

I am waiting to hear any further news from the farm and I hope that when it does come, it is good news...

Update - Weds July 2nd. Yoda and Tiggy have left their boxes and no food has been eaten for 2 nights. This is good news.