I was in the middle of cooking some chicken breasts in a skillet, when the phone rang.  I was talking to E  when I heard the kids barge into the house from outside yelling, "Mama, Mama!" Their voices had a tone of excitement that meant I was either going to get very good news--or very bad news.

I turned with trepidation and was greeted by my 11-year-old son, Mr. A, holding a hedgehog in a net. My daughter E-Grrrl's words tumbled out as she told me how her brother had rescued the hedgehog from the road using his minnow net. It had been in imminent danger of being hit by a neighbor's car.

"Isn't he cute?"

And I must admit he was the cutest, most docile "wild" thing I'd seen. He even let the kids hold him, and we invited the neighborhood children over to see him. The highlight came when he walked across the patio and burrowed into one of E-Grrrl's clogs.

With all the excitement here at Chez V, I overcooked the chicken--but I got some decent photos. Enjoy--you can view them in my photo album in the navigation bar to your right.

September 28, 2006