An animal lover took in a "baby hedgehog" and nursed it only to find out it was far from a living and breathing animal.

The concerned elder woman found what looked to be an injured hedgehog left out on the cold sidewalk, so she took it in, gave it food and looked after it overnight.

However, when the spiky mammal remained motionless in its small box and didn't poop all night despite being provided food, she took it to a nearby animal clinic the next morning. What she found out shocked her -- it wasn't a hedgehog but a fluffy wool hat bobble.

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"I opened the box and, well, I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I thought 'It's definitely not a hedgehog, perhaps it's some other kind of a fluffy creature,'" Janet Kotze, manager at Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve & Wildlife Hospital in Knutsford, Cheshire, in England, told the Daily Mail.

"I realized it wasn't animated at all and I picked it up and obviously with the weight I could feel that it wasn't a hedgehog or any animal at all."

The surprised rescuer couldn't believe what she heard and embarrassingly left the animal hospital.

"I went back out and explained, 'I'm sorry it's just a bobble' ... She said, 'You're joking! Oh my goodness, how did I do that?'" Kotze told The Independent.

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While she has never seen anything like this in her years as an animal hospital manager, Kotze defended the elder woman who was in her "sixties or seventies," saying she did "the right thing."

She added that anyone who sees a hedgehog out on the streets during the daytime should bring it to a rescue center as it's a sign that they're in distress.

Tags: animals Hedgehog