THE hedgehog's name gives a good indication where it is often found.

Now the grass is shooting up, and gardeners reach for their strimmers to cut it back, we're already seeing hedgehogs with slashed faces and bodies and sometimes severed legs.

Please check carefully under the shrubs before you attack the undergrowth. That ball of old, dried grass may contain a sleepy hedgehog.

Apart from feeling dreadful about hurting the little creature, you'll have lost your gardener's friend who clears up the slugs for you.

A H COLES,

British Hedgehog Preservation Society,

Knowbury House, Ludlow, Shropshire.