Yesterday did not go well. My visit to hedgehog was nothing short of a disaster. I so wish squirrel had gone with me but I was convinced I could deal with it on my own. She is so much more sensitive than I am and always seems to know the right thing to say in bad situations. I just blunder on. I expected I would do my normal thing of just blurting it all out and hardly stopping for breath but had tried desperately to prepare the right wording. When it came down to it I just sat there, opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish and nothing coming out. Well hedgehog sat there too and waited for me to talk. So there was this long awkward silence and then eventually he said “Are you trying to tell me something young Alfie?” Well I would have thought it was obvious I was trying to tell him something by the way I was behaving so it seemed a bit of a silly question. Instead of saying yes I replied with “I would have thought that was obvious.” Then he told me not to be so rude and we had a bit of an argument. Well that made it much easier to say there wasn’t going to be a den and I even said it was his fault because the animals didn’t want him living near the forest. As soon as I had said it I knew I had said the wrong thing and felt dreadful. There I was trying to say I was sorry and I didn’t mean it but by then hedgehog was walking away from the table with tears in his eyes saying he thought I had got to know him better than that and that I was supposed to be his friend. Now what am I going to do. For a start whatever will squirrel say to me when she finds out what I have done? Then there is the fact that it is next week that hedgehog comes out and I needed to make all the arrangements with him. I didn’t get to tell him that I had made sure there was a lovely big pile of leaves in the corner of the garden and I have even asked my mistress if they can stay there for a while until we sort something else out. How can I be such a stupid puppy? I don’t really blame hedgehog at all. It isn’t his fault the Forest Council are so short sighted and intolerant. Somehow I have got to sort this mess out and do it quickly. On the way out I asked the weasels what time hedgehog would be allowed out on Wednesday and they said they thought it would be about 3pm. All I can do now is make sure I am there and be ready to apologise. I could try and write to him in the meantime but I don’t know if it will get there in time.