Last night I was trying to keep my kids off their screens as we settled in front of the fire for some quiet reading time. But I was also twitching to keep checking - knowing/hoping that at any moment we would crest the 300,000 ... in the end they were in bed when, at 9.18pm we did it!

Straight away change.org's relentlessly optimistic computer kicked the target up to half a million! Can we do it? I would not have put money on getting to 100,000 .... so perhaps we can ... so - has anyone got any brilliant ideas as to how best make that happen? Do post messages here.

Top tip for today - if you want to build the perfect hedgehog shelter using what you have lying around in the garden it will look remarkably like a bonfire ... PLEASE ... as we get to that season of outdoor fires ... please make sure you are not inadvertently killing hedgehogs. Best ways to stop it happening are to either build the bonfire on the day you burn it - or if it is already built, use the blunt end of a rake and lever it up to check if anyone has moved in. If it is truly massive (like a community event) consider surrounding it with a fence of chicken wire.

Loads more information from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and for less horrific stories of the lengths to which people will go to help our favourite beastie, have a look at A Prickly Affair - my first book (one that remains the ONLY book ever published with endorsements on the cover from both Jeanette Winterson and Ann Widdecombe!)

Keep spreading the word - only 197,000 more people to recruit!

thanks

Hugh