Hedgehogs

In yesterday's weird news was the story of 11-year-old Judson King of Lawrence, Kansas, which bans hedgehogs within city limits. Determined to own one, the boy spent 3 years researching how to change the law, and recently presented his case to city commissioners. They officially lifted the prohibition on December 30, 2008. Judson's reward: he was given a hedgehog for Christmas and named it "Little Luke."

Hedgehogs were in the weird news in 2007, too. In September, "Lucky" wandered into a private home in West Sussex, England, and burrowed into a pile of laundry. She went through the wash before being discovered by the homeowner, who brought her to the local hospital to make sure she had no water in her lungs that could cause a chest infection. Lucky was given rehabilitative care before being given a "soft release" back into the wild.

But the best story--illustrated by the photo above--was from August 2007, when it was reported that orphaned hedgehogs "Mary," "Mungo," "Midge," and "Slappy" had adopted a cleaning brush as their mother and were snuggling up to it for comfort because of its texture and smell!