Happy new year!
Now that the dust has settled after the festive period, we are reflecting on 2018 and planning the year ahead. Last year was certainly an eventful one. Several periods of extreme weather, from snow in March to a very hot summer, made life quite difficult for us and many of the animals admitted. Throughout the year we had over 5000 animals through our doors, and we’ll likely see a similar number in 2019.
Too small to hibernate.
Though we receive fewer admissions through the winter, we never close our doors and our hard-working staff and volunteers were here throughout the Christmas season. Animals find themselves in need all year round and we endeavour to be there for them always. One individual who particularly caught our attention recently was an unusually small hedgehog. Known as little Harriet by our carers, she was found foraging desperately for food when she should have been hibernating and came into us weighing just over 200g. Thankfully she is safe and warm at Secret World, and while many of us are trying to shed a few pounds after the Christmas period, we are pleased that little Harriet is gaining weight nicely.
As you may have heard already, towards the end of December seven of our staff and volunteers travelled to Lyme Regis and braved the cold waters for a swim to raise money for the work we do. Even our founder, Pauline Kidner, went in and managed to fall flat on her face, which perhaps increased the amount of donations and sympathy she received! They raised over £1000 and we are very grateful to them and to all who donated or came out to support us.
We will be making every effort to raise funds this year so look out for our open days and other events. We would love to see you. If you’d like to raise money in your own way, please do get in touch. Whether doing a sponsored run or hosting a coffee morning, we would love to see what you can do to help Secret World this year.
Keep an eye on this blog as we’ll hopefully be posting more regularly to keep you up to date with everything happening at Secret World and how you can get involved.