The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue was originally called The Flash Memorial Hedgehog Rescue named after the original resident, Flash, whom I never got to know because she died just shortly before I arrived here.  When I came here I was terrified because of all of the beatings I used to get at that middle school, so I stayed rolled up in a ball most of the time. 
When I got here there were two hedgehogs already here, old Thelma (even older than me - she was born in 1993) and little Louise, a very wild but happy hedgehog.  Thelma became my friend and snuggled with me all of the time and before long, I started to calm down.  Then Little Flash came here and she was sweet to me also, and she and Thelma became best friends.  After a while I came to know that even the humans here were not going to hurt me so I became more relaxed.  My dear friend Thelma died from being very old on July 12, 1998, but I did not know why she went away so I went looking for her every day for a few months.  The rescue was renamed The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue on July 12, 1998 because Thelma was so special as a caring and kind hedgehog.  The rescue was formally organized in the next month, becoming a charitable nonprofit subsidiary of W.O.L.F. (Wolves Offered Life 
andFriendship)(http://www.fortnet.org/wolf/).  The hedgehog part of the rescue, headquartered in Northern Colorado, is decentralized in three locations and is home to over 20 permanent hedgehog residents and a varying number of temporary hedgehogs that are rescued from various conditions and sources and then found acceptable homes.  Potential adopters are screened and follow-up monitoring and veterinary care is provided. 

    Hedgehogs are fairly new to the U.S.A. as pets and, almost exclusively, the hedgehogs that were imported as pets are known as the African Pigmy Hedgehog, a slang term that is not technically correct.  Really, we are mostly the Central African Hedgehog or White Tummied Hedgehog (Atelerix Albiventris) or the Algerian Hedgehog (Atelerix Algirus).  We are small 
(weighing only about one pound) and, as are many other "exotic" animals, misunderstood.  Accordingly, we are often unintentionally mistreated, fed an inappropriate diet, and neglected.  Furthermore, little is known about our proper medical care and the pet care literature for hedgehogs is inadequate and often incorrect.  There is substantial evidence to indicate that even though the estimated lifespan of an African Pigmy Hedgehog should be four to six years in captivity, most of us kept as pets die under two years of age. 

    The rescue locates hedgehogs for rescue and placement by local word-of-mouth, screening classified advertisements in the Fort Collins and Denver, Colorado newspapers, from local (Fort Collins and Denver) breeders, from the Denver pet wholesaler (Western Aquatics), and nationally through the Internet (mainly the four hedgehog email listservers).  Furthermore, in addition to providing rescue, care, rehabilitation, and adoption services locally, the Rescue offers services internationally in the following ways:

a.  Rescue of hedgehogs from neglectful, abusive, and/or impossibility (a person can no longer care for an animal) situations in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico through information provided on the hedgehog email list servers or by individual contact.

b.  Adoption of an at-cost scale program to provide hedgehog owners and caretakers with accurate digital weight scales at wholesale cost plus actual shipping costs.

 c.  Provision of veterinary care, including emergency care, for hedgehogs in cases where the human caretaker cannot afford the care.  Disbursement is made directly to the servicing veterinarian.

d.  Provision of veterinary consultative services to other veterinarians in North America and Europe by a hedgehog specialist who is a zoological and wildlife veterinarian now in private practice and formerly on the faculty of Clinical Services, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Veterinary Medicine, Colorado State University. 

e.  Funding of post-mortem examinations or portions of post-mortem examinations (such as histopathological examinations) where the performance of the examination may contribute to the medical literature in the furtherance of the health of hedgehogs.  A specific post-mortem examination funding program, called The Munchkin Memorial Fund, is sponsored by The Flash and Thelma Memorial Rescue to assist researchers at Yale University in the investigation of wobbly hedgehog syndrome (WHS) a fatal hedgehog disease that some think is similar to multiple sclerosis in humans.

f.  Work is under way, in a cooperative effort with other interested individuals, to establish a Registry of Hedgehog Pathology so as to index hedgehog medical problems in a searchable database for veterinarians and other animal health care professionals.

    Temporary rescues pass through on the way to adopters and may stay from 1 day to several weeks.  Permanent residents are at the rescue for several reasons:

a.  Unmanageable to the typical pet owner (usually too skittish/aggressive, too boisterous, repeated escapes).

b.  Disabled (blind, partially blind, disease prone, seriously ill, paralyzed, missing limbs).

c.  Too old for adoption at time of arrival at the rescue.

d.  A therapeutic hedgehog of a very calm and sociable demeanor used to calm down other, more aggressive/skittish/traumatized hedgehogs.

    The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue is a no kill rescue and does not engage in euthanasia unless an animal is enduring excruciating and unremitting pain.  All animals at the rescue, temporary or permanent, receive whatever veterinary care is required, regardless of cost, including all required tests for possible illnesses, all recommended surgery, all recommended histopathology, and all recommended medications.