My only close encounter was with an unfortunate mother hedgehog who managed to get herself stuck between the house wall and the garden wall while trying to help some silly babies who'd got trapped there. I was a small child at the time: my dad spent ages trying to lever the poor girl out (her spines had wedged her very tightly into place) while the babies were running around everywhere. It was a bit traumatic for all concerned (mother hedgehog especially), as we were leaving for our summer hols the following day.

When we returned a couple of weeks, Dad dug up the nest to make sure she hadn't died from internal injuries in our absence. Thankfully, there were no hedgehog corpses to be found, so mother and babies must have moved on.