Driver, Spare That Hedgehog

Under cover of night, a diminutive pedestrian crosses the wooded country road. Suddenly white beams of light roar toward him. The stroller instinctively rolls into a spiny ball. Bad move. Splat!

More than 100,000 hedgehogs are flattened on the roads of Britain each year. Of the survivors, thousands limp into the woods to pass the rest of their lives crippled and ill. But other victims are more fortunate. Rescued by Britain's growing legion of hedgehog fanciers, they are gently bundled off to the country's only hedgehog clinic, St. Tiggywinkle's. Named for the hedgehog washerwoman of Beatrix Potter nursery-tale fame, the hospital is equipped to deal with every affliction, from broken bones to deflated spines. St. Tiggywinkle's wards house 150 to 200 prickly patients. Nearly all are auto casualties, though some are victims of dog or cat attacks, and one was admitted after being mauled by a rhinoceros during a careless stroll through a zoo.

Les and Sue Stocker, the couple who run the increasingly busy hospital out of their garden in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, have launched a $1.8 million expansion drive, funded in part by a popular adopt-a-hedgehog program. A portion of the money will be used for rooms to keep the patients separated. In a triumph of instinct over infirmity, recuperating male hedgehogs tend to treat the wards like honeymoon suites.