a.b.s.f.g. readers go on a nature walk:

John Huff:
 Page 45 of the 1/97 *Wired* magazine, under its
 "Tired vs Wired" column, shows under "Tired" -
 Ferrets; under "Wired" - Hedgehogs?  Geez!
 What is this digital world coming to... ???

Ned sed:
     Cool, man.  Ferrets are OUT?
 
     Hedgehogs, huh?  My friend Mary and I saw one (we think) on Picnic
     Point in Madison last fall.  Strangely, it was in a tree, just
     lounging on a low branch.

Weasel barks:
I don't think there are any hedgehogs, properly speaking, in the U.S. of
A. that are wild and indigenous. Closest we got is the porkypine. Now,
maybe there's an import of hedgehogs from Europe (we do have a
black-footed ferret on the prairie, but pet ferrets, I believe, are
European).

So, if I'm right, what you saw was

not a hedgehog, but a porcupine (or something utterly different);
an escaped hedgehog; a hedgehog that lives nearby and whose owner 
allows it enough freedom.

As for ferrrets being passe, I'd like to mention that the last I spent
time in Marin County (1991), there was considerable competition amongst
the spiritually with-it to be on the hippest bandwagon of the week. Zen
was hopelessly passe. I was viewed as benighted beyond redemption, and
spared a lot of argument. Thus we had a very nice sitting group founded by
Ed Brown, with very few, if any, flakes of the sort we would have been
sure to get were Zen in the heyday of its popularity.

I mean, like, what fun is it having a ferret if everyone else thinks it's
cool to have a ferret?


Ned replied: 
     I appreciate the biology lesson, but it definitely wasn't a 
     porcupine, or a beaver, or an opossum, or a weasel, or a
     ferret.
 
     Hmmm...  And now that I look at the picture, it wasn't a
     hedgehog (not spiney enough).  It was probably a woodchuck.
 

Weasel (finally somebody makes a reasonable suggestion):

I did think of woodchucks, but discarded that when I reread it as being in
a tree. Now, I'm not one to prohibit woodchucks from climbing trees, but
my impression is that it is not their usual habitat.

So, one can only conclude, after reasonably eliminating all the other
possibilities, that it was a stranded extraterrestrial lifeform for whom
contact with the surface of the earth is lethal.


Ned (replying to something yet to appear, it appears):
 No, it wasn't a raccoon.  I'm thinking "stranded extraterrestrial
 lifeform" is looking pretty good.


P.K. Harvey speculated, as someone must:
 Stranded?  Sure, that's what they want you to believe.


Ned *bing* *bing* *bing*:
    You're right, P.K.!  As we walked under it, a bright light (in the
    clear day) shone all around us, and ever since then I've had a
    great affection and tenderness for woodchucks.  I'm breeding a
    whole basement full of them here, and pretty soon I'll have to
    start filling the attic.  Their silvery pods are so beautiful in
    in the halogen light, and it's all so peaceful now...


but just when we thought we had it figured out, Vince brought
up a sticky point:
Was there a trail of M & M's in the area?  That's usually a good clue.
Hey, maybe it was a... a really spiney bird of some sort.  A renegade
muppet maybe?


Ned:
    Oh yeah, renegade muppet works, too.

    (Especially the nonchalant part - muppets have that nailed.)