I just spent the night nursing a cushion tassel thinking it was a baby hedgehog

Report the OP and put in the comments that you want to nominate for classics.

I have arachnophobia and have shrieked with terror (on more than one occasion) at the green top of a tomato!

Anyone who thinks it's made up clearly hasn't been off their head with painkillers before now. This is totally plausible to me.

Reminds me of the old thread about the poorly cat that turned out to be a fur hat abandoned on a wall.

They must be really good painkillers...

Can anyone tell me how to nominate this as a classic? I think this needs to be saved for posterity! DP keeps looking at me like I've gone crazy because I'm laughing so much.

If you object to this because it's potentially made up then do you also object to anything on TV that is untrue?

I like watching the soaps and comedies and it adds value to my life because it's something a bit different from the humdrum everyday life that can be lockdown, this thread is no different. It's funny and that's good enough for me.

I once sent my husband out to rescue a poor mouse that cat was playing with, it was trying to scurry away only to be brought back, tossed from paw to paw. It turned out to be a small new potato rolling around.

@Shufflebudge do you feel superior now that you've posted? Had a bad day or are you always this unpleasant?

Whether it's made up or not I've actually cried with laughter at this thread and heaven knows we all need a laugh, especially now. Go and be a grump elsewhere!

I remember during foot and mouth back in c2000 I was on a train with a colleague. We were going past a field and I said "oh my god, look at that field full of dead sheep"

It turned out they were Christmas trees that had been chopped down and wrapped in white plastic for collection

Oh my god I am crying with laughter!

I would rather have 100 made up threads like this one than any of the made up threads about traumatic events designed to garner sympathy and god knows what else from MN users. Real or not, crack on OP!

You are officially a legend OP! 🦔

I’m really glad to see a few posters on here who have mistakenly thought they encountered a dead cat.

I love cats so much and I have a bit of a fear of seeing one dead - if I see one that has been hit by a car I feel really distressed and upset. I was out on a winter run a few years ago and the sun was setting (which is an even harder light to see in than the dark imo) and I didn’t have my glasses on. I got really panicked because I thought I saw a dead cat. I rang DP and said you’re going to have to drive here because I can’t get any closer to it, I’m too scared and I’m really upset but I need to check if he’s alive/hurt/breathing. DP arrived and slowly started to walk towards it. When he’d got a bit closer he just burst out laughing because it was a Mcdonald’s paper takeaway bag. I actually have no idea how but it had crumpled up into the perfect shape of a sleeping cat!

Have also done the reverse a few times and thought DCat was an object He’s got jet black fur and once I grabbed what I thought was my pair of black jeans I’d thrown on the floor the night before, to realise it was poor DCat asleep on the rug all curled up!

*awake

I've just snorted myself wide away reading this while trying to sleep. Thank GOD you didn't take it to the vet.

OP - really hope your back gets better soon.

Your post made me chuckle - ignore the fun sponges, I don’t care if it’s made up or not, we all need a smile at the moment.

We don’t have a good history with hedgehogs in our household.

Many, many years ago my birthday party was held in our back garden - this is probably about 40 years ago. We had very low post and rail fences between us and the neighbours. Once everyone had left and mum finished tidying up, she too’ the black sack out to the bin at the side of the house/back garden. It was dark. She saw a round shape on the patio and thought it was one of the party balloons and, feeling confident in the dark, she thought she’d try to score a goal over into our neighbour’s garden. Not sure who was more freaked out - the hedgehog she booted or my mum when the hedgehog “screamed”. She was mortified, she loves animals.

Wasn’t long after I passed my driving test. Driving in the dark down a semi rural road. Hedgehog was lit up by my headlights, no traffic coming the other way. I pulled across the road to avoid it, but didn’t judge the distance properly, so squished it with my rear wheel. 30 years on and I still think of Mr Hedgehog when I’m driving!

My Nan did this. Thought there was a dead baby bird in the shed. Made a box for it and made my granddad go and gently pick it up. Turns out it was a daffodil bulb.

Because that looks at least 20 times bigger than a mouse?

I feel like I'm in a parallel universe. I'm fairly sure my six year old could tell by sight the difference between an animal and a toy/piece of tree/bit of a cushion. If she couldn't tell just by looking she would definitely know if she was 'cradling it all night'. I can understand a quick glance and thinking it was something else, but you were holding it!

Yep I agree. Do people really believe this. Surely it's tongue in cheek?

People believed and enjoyed penis beaker and various other threads of its ilk.

Maybe they were made up, maybe they started out with a grain of truth that then became over-egged and over exaggerated. Who knows but in the grand scheme of things if people enjoy them then there's no real harm in it.