A HEDGEHOG hospital had to be closed and evacuated after a drainage problem caused it to flood.
Nadia Al-dujaili, from Rosyth, Fife, said she was up to her knees in water trying to rescue 30 hedgehogs from her back garden.
Nadia looked out of her front window yesterday (TUE) to see the street in front was flooded, and rushed into her garden to save the hedgehogs.
The Forth Hedgehog Hospital is housed in a shed in Nadia’s back garden, where she cares for poorly hedgehogs and rehabilitates them before returning them to the wild.
Thankfully, Nadia said all of the hedgehogs are safe and sound and are now spread around her house while she tries to mitigate the flooding to her new shed – which she only finished in November last year.
Now, the hedgehog rescuer is asking for food donations for the hedgehogs – after their biscuits were ruined by the flood.
The Forth Hedgehog Hospital took to their Facebook page, writing: “Emergency. The hedgehog hospital is closed until further notice.
“Today, the whole area around the hospital flooded and all the hogs had to be evacuated into Nadia’s house. All 30 of them.
“The lovely new hospital shed is several inches deep in water. The whole garden has flooded and is unusable. The people at Gap have kindly offered us the use of a humidifier when it is safe to do so.
“The important thing is that Nadia and the hedgehogs are safe and sound. It’s very upsetting to see but we will be back to normal as soon as it is humanly possible.
“The hedgehogs have lost most of their dried biscuits in the water. If anybody cares to donate some to us it would be very gratefully received. It will be stored in the house until it can be moved back outside.
“Thank you to everyone who helped with the moving today and to Inglis Vets who are looking after a couple of the poorly hogs for a few days.”
As a result of the flood, the hospital updated their Amazon wishlist asking for donations of hedgehog treats, food, cleaning supplies and bedding for the poorly hogs.
And Nadia, who runs the hospital mostly by herself, now has hedgehogs all over her house in boxes.
Speaking today, Nadia said: “I think it’s a drainage problem, the whole street out of the front of my house was flooded too. I looked out the front window yesterday morning and there was water coming out of the drain, there was so much water coming out of it it was like a fountain. I went straight to the back garden.
“I don’t know what’s caused it really, I think it’s a mixture of everything, the snow thawing, the drain not working properly, and I don’t have any gas either.
“The water was up to my knees and I had to wade through it to get the hedgehogs out and into my house.
“They were all hibernating until the flood happened. Thankfully they are all happy and fine, which is the only thing that matters.”
Social media users were quick to comment on the post and offer support to Nadia.
Lesley Scrymgeour said: “Oh no…your new shed. So long as you and hedgehogs are okay, the shed will recover. If you need any help when water subsides just let me know.”
Suzanne Fairgrieve added: “Stay safe and strong Nadia. Hopefully the shed will be okay, but you and the hoggies are safe, that’s all that matters.”
Moira Eadie commented: “What an awful thing to happen. Hope it’s not too long before you get things dried out and back to normal. So long as you and all the hogs are fine though, that’s the priority. “
