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WORK TITLE: A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart
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PSEUDONYM(S):
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NATIONALITY: Italian
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1967, in Italy.
EDUCATION:Attended Liceo Scientifico Alba Leonardo Cocito. Received degree from Università di Torino.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Veterinarian and author. The Hedgehog Home, chairman; La Ninna Recovery Center, founder.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Massimo Vacchetta has worked for numerous years as a veterinarian. According to Helen Brown in an article on the Daily Mail website, Vacchetta previously wasn’t attached to his animal patients on an emotional level. It wasn’t until he encountered an infant hedgehog that he began to view his work much differently. It is this experience that led him to work with The Hedgehog Home, as well as launch La Ninna, which caters specifically to caring for injured and/or sick wild hedgehogs. This experience also led to the creation of Vacchetta’s book, A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart. Jamie Richards translated the book for English-speaking audiences.
The book starts with Vacchetta’s acceptance of his hedgehog patient. The day it arrived, Vacchetta found it cute and took time in between caring for it to take pictures with it. However, the hedgehog soon came to bring more significance to Vacchetta’s life than a few cute photos. When the hedgehog first came into Vacchetta’s life, he was in the midst of an identity–and emotion–based fog, with no idea of how to navigate his way out. It was caring for the hedgehog that gave him a new sense of purpose, as he immediately formed a strong bond with the tiny creature. From then on, the hedgehog became known to him as “Ninna,” and Vacchetta became immediately and solely responsible for nursing her back to good health. Ninna’s presence came to emotionally soothe Vacchetta. He continued to spend time with her, researching ways to care for her as thoroughly as possible, and taking her for walks that renewed his connections with and appreciation of the natural world. For some time, Vacchetta continued keeping Ninna as a pet, and his experiences with her enabled him to start caring professionally for other hedgehogs in need of help. This growing demand led him to finally launch La Ninna.
Yet, as time wore on, Vacchetta found his relationship with Ninna to be at an impasse. Ninna was not built to be a domesticated pet. She began displaying signs that she needs to be freed, and Vacchetta had to come to a decision regarding her overall well being. He ultimately let Ninna go back into the wild, but continued to fondly remember his time with her and now devotes his time to assisting other hedgehogs just as thoroughly. “This sweet tale of companionship is sure to resonate with animal lovers,” remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2018, review of A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart, p. 64.
ONLINE
Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ (April 12, 2018), Helen Brown, “The prickly problem of how to heal a hedgehog: Vet describes how nurturing the creatures affected him deeply.”
Internet Bookshop Italia, https://www.ibs.it/ (September 4, 2018), author profile.
Quercus, https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/ (September 4, 2018), author profile.
About Massimo Vacchetta
Work
Centro Recupero Ricci "La Ninna"
Veterinario
Self-Employed
Education
medicina veterinaria torino
Turin, Italy
Liceo Scientifico Alba Leonardo Cocito
Alba, Italy
Favorites
Music
[Susan Boyle]
Susan Boyle
Books
[The Disappearing Hedgehog]
The Disappearing Hedgehog
Television
[America's Got Talent]
America's Got Talent
Other
Giovanna Damonte Event Stylist, Zmove, Palasanquirico, MSN Italia, Zoo Copenaghen, Alice Miller, Environmental Working Group, Oggles Hedgehog Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre, Centro Recupero Ricci "La Ninna", Professor Brian Cox, Marcello Filippeschi, Rifugio Sherwood - Associazione Noirandagi Onlus, Pasquale De Falco Autore, Valentina D'Amaro, Riccardo Canigiani De Cerchi, Tiziana Fiori, Anastasia Spinelli, Marco Privatosvago Pistoresi, Happy Dog Wash Collegno, Gazzetta d'Alba, Azienda Agricola Fratelli Aimasso, Linkin' Bridge, Simon Cowell, Courtney Hadwin, Clinica Veterinaria San Giuseppe, Alexandria Turtle & Wildlife Rescue Team, Franceinfo, Daily Mail, La Collina dei Conigli Onlus, Anna Clara Panero, Amigos Picudos - Associação para a Preservação e Protecção dos Ouriços, Janira Majello, ENPA Nuoro, Idana Vignolo, Marino Dellapiana, Gionni Marengo, Bike for Animals, Architectural Revival, Gattinara 24 ore, Noam Chomsky, Dr. Jane Goodall, Claudia Cavallini, Ritorno alla Natura, Il Punto di Vista Animale, Francesca Mazzola, Passeggiate itinerari percorsi per il tuo cane - Passeggiatepercani.it, Casa Vacanze San Stefanetto, Sebastião Salgado, il BARDO sanctuary, Taddeo, SEU - Scrittori Emergenti Uniti, Hollyunangeloa Quattrozampe, L'Oasi Del Randagio, CON FIDO NEL CUORE - BARI, Associazione BAU Libera TUTTI, Italian Setter Rescue Onlus, Io,cane di strada, Quintomondo Animalisti Volontari Onlus, Catorci Rescue: Invisibili alla Riscossa, zooplus.it, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, NONNI Sprint Bau&Miao, Gli Angeli Randagi Del Vesuvio, Associazione La Voce del Cane, ~ Il mio amico a 4 zampe ~, Animali in Vacanza, Io adotto un cane anziano., Simone Dalla Valle - dog trainer, Nonno Lupo, Adotta un cane del canile, Lega Nazionale Per La Difesa Del Cane, LAV, WWF Italia, LAC - Lega Abolizione Caccia, ENPA - Ente Nazionale Protezione Animali, Der Schulte, Erizos CR, Ludmilla Caraffini, Elwood P. Dowd, Vittorio Sgarbi, Furet du Nord (Officiel), Salviamo Saretto, Pomóżmy Jeżom, curiosa di natura, Michela Zanin Bio-Discipline e Cranio-Sacrale, Amici Veri - aderente a Confedilizia, Apollo e Daphne, Giuseppina Palazzolo Billanti, Doriana Mandolini, Il Fatto Quotidiano, CRAS La Fenice, Luisa Campana, Percorsi di Crescita Personale & Coaching, Le Sanctuaire des hérissons par Emmanuelle, La tana dello scoiattolo, Partito Animalista Europeo, Salva un cane dal Miglio Verde - associazione Razza Bastarda, Il mio cane è Leggenda, Clinica Veterinaria Duemari, Maria Laura Bosiaierioggidomani Manzi, Edoardo Stoppa, Pizzitalia, Valerio Manisi, In Cammino, Amatrice 2.0, Il Rifugio degli Asinelli ONLUS, Sperling & Kupfer, Studio Architetto Ilaria Cattaneo, L'arte di Lucy di Lucia Galtarossa, Radio Alba, Help! La Terra Chiede Aiuto, Exploria di Matteo Contini, Hedgehog Bottom, W IL M5S, Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand, Centro Fauna Selvatica Il pettirosso, Barack Obama, Rifugio Miletta, Plejestation "pindsvinenes håb" Aarhus, CRAS Centro Recupero Animali Selvatici- Provincia di Cuneo, Milano Natura, VetPro - Veterinari Bovini, Comitato San Giuseppe Seregno, Scodinzolando PetTherapy, Produzioni Dal Basso, Clinica Veterinaria Europea, Hope for Hedgehogs, HAPPY - hedgehog appreciation prickly pals Yorkshire, ioleggoconjoy.com, Agrimacelleria Cascina Anziano, Gabriel Garko, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amico Riccio, Mino Reitano, Amici Animali, AJ+, Progetto Life Strade, Ambulatorio Veterinario Dott.ssa Cane Manuela, Camminare lentamente, Amici Animali TV, WWF, Insieme Per Sagrin Animalista, Amico Deglianimali, Pro Loco Roddino, Fulvio Silvestri
Massimo Vacchetta
Massimo Vacchetta is the chairman of The Hedgehog Home, an association whose mission is the protection of hedgehogs and their environment. He is also the founder of a shelter and rehabilitation centre for hedgehogs. He lives in Northern Italy, where he is a veterinarian specializing in the care of cattle.
Antonella Tomaselli is a journalist, author, environmentalist and lover of animals.
Books currently available by this author
A Handful of Happiness
Massimo Vacchetta
The heart-warming story of how a tiny hedgehog helped one man find hope. 'Could you look after it for a couple of days? . . .' So begins the extraordinary friendship between veterinarian Massimo, who is at a low spot in his life, and a tiny, orphaned hedgehog. Only a few days old, covered with soft, white quills and mewling quietly, this little creature will turn around his life forever. Through the sheer force of Ninna's personality - curious, playful, affectionate - and the sudden, unexpected paternal protectiveness he feels nursing her back to health, Massimo reconnects with the world - and finally begins to feel like home. But as Ninna wakes from her first hibernation, she grows up, like any teenager, longing for freedom. A creature of the wild, she craves the free range of the woods beyond Massimo's house. Massimo must accept that Ninna is ready to move on . . . but one little hedgehog saved and released into her natural habitat is a new beginning for Massimo: setting up a sanctuary for the injured, orphaned, fragile - but with a will to live so strong it is truly contagious.A Handful of Happiness is their funny and life-affirming story - a celebration of our favourite prickly wildlife creature, which will make you laugh and cry. Perfect for animal lovers and fans of A Streetcat Named Bob, Arthur, Finding Gobi and Monty Don's Nigel.
Massimo Vacchetta, residente a Novello (in provincia di Cuneo), è veterinario nel settore dei bovini. È il fondatore del Centro di Recupero Ricci «La Ninna», sezione staccata del CRAS di Bernezzo. È anche presidente dell'Associazione «La Casa dei ricci», che ha lo scopo di tutelare il riccio e la natura.
Con Sperling & Kupfer nel 2016 ha pubblicato 25 grammi di felicità. Come un piccolo riccio può cambiarti la vita.
TRANSLATED BY GOOGLE
Massimo Vacchetta, a resident of Novello (in the province of Cuneo), is a veterinarian in the cattle sector. He is the founder of the Ricci Recovery Center "La Ninna", a detached section of the Bernezzo CRAS. He is also president of the "La Casa dei ricci" association, which aims to protect hedgehogs and nature.
With Sperling & Kupfer in 2016 published 25 grams of happiness. Like a little hedgehog can change your life .
The prickly problem of how to heal a hedgehog: Vet describes how nurturing the creatures affected him deeply
Vet says looking after orphaned hedgehog healed something within himself
Massimo Vacchetta said it shattered his ‘shield of professional detachment’
He later went on to set up his own hedgehog sanctuary called ‘La Ninna'
By Helen Brown For The Daily Mail
Published: 17:43 EDT, 12 April 2018 | Updated: 18:01 EDT, 12 April 2018
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A HANDFUL OF HAPPINESS
by Massimo Vacchetta (Quercus £14.99)
‘That’s a bit different!’ laughed vet Massimo Vacchetta when he was asked to look after a baby hedgehog one weekend in May 2013.
The tiny creature, weighing only 25 grams, had been brought into the surgery by a woman who’d found it alone in her garden.
Vacchetta set the hoglet on his palm, observed its pink, hairless skin, soft, white spines and front paws with slender toes that looked touchingly human. He snapped a couple of cute selfies to post on social media and then went home for the night.
But, returning in the morning, Vacchetta’s heart was pierced by a soft, small whimper. ‘It stung. It hurt,’ he recalls, this ‘tear-shaped sound’. Though his work brought him into daily contact with the sound of animals in pain, this orphaned hedgehog shattered his ‘shield of professional detachment’.
Vet Massimo Vacchetta describes how looking after an orphaned hedgehog affected him
Vet Massimo Vacchetta describes how looking after an orphaned hedgehog affected him
‘I imagined its mother getting hit by a car while searching for food, flattened on the asphalt. I imagined the baby . . . fearful, emerging from its nest to search for its mother. In an instant, like a thunderbolt, I felt its utter solitude . . . It was mine as a child.’
Born in Northern Italy in 1967, the sensitive Vacchetta grew up in constant fear his dad, a hypochondriac, would drop dead. Compounding this, his mother worked long hours, so he was always the last child to be collected from school, waiting ‘every day with the same fear that my mum wouldn’t come’.
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As an adult, Vacchetta channelled that anxiety into fretting, bitterly, over a failed marriage, as well as his mother’s worsening health. But he found that nurturing the baby hedgehog — a female he called ‘Ninna’ — healed something deep inside his soul.
Connecting with experts around the world, Vacchetta quickly learned the art of hedgehog wrangling. He fed Ninna at two-hour intervals through the night, sourced kitten food and massaged her tummy with almond oil to help her evacuate her bowels.
A HANDFUL OF HAPPINESS by Massimo Vacchetta
A HANDFUL OF HAPPINESS by Massimo Vacchetta
Walking with her late at night, he learned to listen to the countryside: ‘The crackling of leaves, the music of the crickets, the voices of the nocturnal birds.’ He was tuning in to the internal peace that had always eluded him.
Word got around about Vacchetta’s unusual expertise and local people were soon bringing him other orphaned or injured hedgehogs. Eventually, he set up his own hedgehog sanctuary and called it ‘La Ninna’.
But, having saved and raised Ninna, Vacchetta had to let her go. She was a wild creature, becoming increasingly frustrated and aggressive in captivity. Her appetite fell away. ‘By then, I had released many hedgehogs,’ he says. ‘I’d seen their eyes sparkle like bright stars when they realised they were free. Those little creatures oozed happiness from every quill.’
He finally released Ninna in a garden, beneath a weeping willow tree. In losing her, he found himself and ‘the value of life. Of love. Of helping out’. I loved curling up with his adorable book.
A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart
Publishers Weekly. 265.8 (Feb. 19, 2018): p64.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart Massimo Vacchetta, with Antonella Tomaselli, trans, from the Italian by Jamie Richards. Rodale, $22.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-63565-265-9
This tender tale of an Italian veterinarian and his pet hedgehog begins as many modern pet stories do--with a selfie. Vacchetta was working part-time at an animal clinic in 2013 when one day a woman brought in a newborn hedgehog that she found in her garden. After feeding the tiny creature goat milk from a syringe, Vacchetta and his boss, Andrea, spent the afternoon taking selfies with the tiny critter. Vacchetta was recently divorced at the time and feeling emotionally adrift and unsure of what he wanted from life, yet he was immediately fond of this tiny hedgehog. He took it upon himself to care for the animal he named Ninna. The book follows along as Vacchetta builds Ninna a little house, takes her to the beach, and frets over how much to feed her. Inspired by his prickly companion, Vacchetta opened La Ninna Rescue Center for hedgehogs in the city of Novelio, in northern Italy. This sweet tale of companionship is sure to resonate with animal lovers. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature Softened a Prickly Heart." Publishers Weekly, 19 Feb. 2018, p. 64. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529357548/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=901cded7. Accessed 11 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529357548