A hedgehog is learning to walk again after he needed surgery to remove a leg.

Poor Dennis was rescued from the gutter by driving instructor Simon Long who spotted him when another motorist swerved to avoid him in Singlewell Road, Gravesend.

Mr Long asked his pupil to pull over so he could pick up the animal, which had rolled off the pavement and into the road.

Dennis, named after the street where Mr Long lives with his wife and two children, was in a bad way, with a mangled leg and infection setting in.

Mr Long, 44, of Dennis Road, Gravesend, contacted a vet who put him in touch with Kelly Smith, who runs the Medway Hedgehog Rescue Centre in Strood.

Warren House vets in Rochester offered to operate for free.

Dennis went under the knife on Thursday but sadly his leg had to be amputated.

He is now recovering at the rescue centre.

Mr Long has two sons James, nine, and Thomas, seven, who are hoping to see Dennis again when he is feeling better.

He said: “I couldn’t leave him there. I had to finish the lesson so he had a little trip to Dartford.”