Basil the badger

Most of you will have seen the request to help an injured badger I sent out yesterday evening.

This Blog is to take you through what happened.

We received a message late in the afternoon that an injured badger had been seen in a pothole on a very busy road in Fareham. The member of the public that reported it said they couldn't stop as it was too dangerous with all the traffic, but the badger appeared alive.

As I live in Farnborough I thought I would see if any of our members in the south of the county could take a look rather than me travel all the way down and find the badger had wandered off.

I received several calls from our members offering help, thank you each and everyone that responded.

I talked to Andrew who was not far away and he said he would go and see. I suggested he took a dog crate with him so that he could contain the badger if need be.

Andrew got in touch not long after and said the badger was still there and he had managed to get it in the crate. Not an easy task with an angry wounded badger.

Whilst this was all going on I received a call from Zoe that rescues foxes in the Portsmouth area. She had been alerted to what was going on by another member Charmayne, thank you Charmayne for making the contact.

Zoe offered to pick up the badger from Andrew and then take it to Horsham Wildlife Rescue that she uses.

By 20:45 Zoe had collected the badger and was on route to the Wildlife Hospital.

By 23:00 Basil, as they named him, was being assessed. He had an old and badly infected wound, most likely inflicted by another badger, and a fresh wound most likely due to being hit by a vehicle. He was very feisty!

They washed the wounds, gave him antibiotics and settled him down the best they could.

Zoe then drove back to Portsmouth and got home around 01:30.

I would like to say a very big thank you to Zoe for dropping everything and doing the round trip, a real heroine. Zoe runs a small rescue service called William's Wildlife. Here is a link to their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/501601832157806

If you want to support them you can make a donation via Paypal to :

zoebailey_72@icloud.com

As a group we are making a donation.

Also many thanks to Nathan at Horsham Wildlife Rescue, they took in Basil at short notice and gave him much needed treatment.

Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573005503162

Again we will make a group donation but if you want to support them here are their bank details: Mr Nathan Harman 30-99-62 18873368

Why did I do the Blog? I wanted to show that as a group we can respond and pull together to do what's required to help our wildlife. Without you, our members, this wouldn't happen.

Thank you and special thanks to those involved in the rescue, it really is appreciated.

I have just received the sad news that Basil deteriorated throughout the day and died this evening, very sad but we all tried our best to save him. At least he died somewhere warm and comfortable rather than in the road.

RIP Basil