The humble hedgehog hardly ever habituates the pages of the daily news. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a headline such as, “Gang of hedgehogs ram raid off licence”, “Hedgehog on trail for tax evasion”, “Rogue hedgehog steals the Mona Lisa”. It never happens, and why?

As hedgehogs are cool, sweet natured, polite little beasts with one slightly psychotic tendency. Whenever threatened they curl up into a ball and those spiny things make it virtually impossible to say hello properly.

Which kind of makes you wonder why they’re called hedgehogs. Why not “Spinyhogs”, “Bogbrush Beasts”, or “Spinyosauroses”? What have hedges got to do with any of this? We don’t mind hedges, they’re alright as ornamental garden based aesthetics go, but hedgehogs don’t exactly congregate in hedges regularly. Do they?

Growing up, Mr. Wapojif was conned in to believing you should leave milk out for hedgehogs. Apparently, he was told, they bloody love it!

This turned out to be nonsense; the wee beasts are more partial to cat food. Quite why, we don’t know. Are cats and hedgehogs related in any way? Who knows? Anyway, the really weird thing about hedgehogs is just how loveably weird they look.

They’re a fairly common animal across Europe (probably) and other areas of the world (we would guess), and as such one tends to forget just how odd they are. Behold the picture above.

Due to their cute factor, Pygmy Hedgehogs have become sort after pets, and can be purchased for £200 a time.

They’re roughly the same of a hamster (which cost £10), so this is the type of pulling power hedgehogs have in modern society. You have to love them. All hail!