Security breach

At 10.30 this morning there is an almighty outbreak of savage barking. One of those “I’ll rip your throat out if I can but get at you!” barks. Peering over the dog’s animated shoulders, through the window I can see the offending intruder. A decrepit looking hedgehog. (My rule of thumb with hedgehogs that are blundering around in broad daylight on a freezing cold day with their eyes looking gluey is that they are heading very shortly for that compost heap in the sky and that rescue missions are inappropriate. And what are they doing here anyway…?)
I decide that hedgehog and dog are not an ideal combination. (That E.H. Shephard drawing of Tigger after he had tasted thistles and hastily decided that Tiggers didn’t like them comes to mind. Dog has the stripey coat needed to play Tigger in the panto.)
Dog by now desperate to make a kill. (I jest not – he killed a rat the other day.) It’s an open plan house and he is charging around baying hysterically and looking for an escape route. He then appears before me, as in the photo, with what looks like the kind of collar that is used when dogs have ear or head wounds. I do double take and realise that he has not transcended space/time and been to the vet in the last 5 seconds – he has rammed his head through the ancient cat flap on the back door and dismantled it with his neck muscles. An interesting look don’t we think?