Cuckfield girl, 10, converts Wendy house into animal rescue centre for birds, hedgehogs and other Sussex wildlife

Gracie Smith converted her Wendy house into a space for rehabilitating birds, hedgehogs, mice and other animals in need of help.

Once the animals are well again she reintroduces them safely back into the wild, as close to where they were found as possible.

Gracie told the Middy: “I like releasing them and looking after them and having something nice to do in the day.”

She said she began her rescue centre in June after finding a fledgling crow that could not fly.

Mum Alexandra Buchanan, 38, said: “I’m very proud of her because it’s such a lovely thing that she’s thought of all by herself and she spends her own pocket money on buying supplies for the animals. We had one bird that had mites, so Gracie spent her own money on some delousing powder.”

Gracie added: “For baby animals we have a mixture of milk that we can give them and for adults we can give them chick crumbs and things like that.”

People with injured animals can contact Gracie and Alexandra through their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094559048321.

Alexandra said Gracie researches the most appropriate foods for the animals, which sometimes means digging up worms in the garden. She also syringe feeds some of the baby birds if they are very young.

Alexandra explained that the Wendy house is in what Gracie and her younger sister Diddie, eight, call their ‘secret garden’. She said: “They've got a little garden that’s fenced in and there’s a little fish pond and they’ve had tadpoles and things. When animals can start to be released they can wander around there.”

She said the Wendy house is on stilts and has pens and hutches inside, as well as pens underneath. They have heat lamps too for animals who need a warmer environment and they can also take care of these closer to the house in the conservatory.

Alexandra said both sides of her family farmed when she was growing up and she said she lived on a Sussex farm until three years ago. She said: “Now we live in Cuckfield and have an entire menagerie. We’ve got two dogs, two cats, five hens, budgies, hamsters, all sorts.”