IT WAS LIKE a glorious image of the future, and for quite two hours I almost believed it: a beast of almost unbearable furriness, of almost ludicrous charm, running up a steep strand of hazel coppice, so small you could comfortably hold a dozen of him in your cupped palms without significant overcrowding, tail longer than body and even furrier, travelling at clockwork-mouse pace onwards and upwards, essaying a Tarzan leap across a to-him-immense gap and vanishing into the canopy to live happily ever after.

Dormouse! Conservation is not all about saving nice fluffy animals, but let’s not turn our noses up at nice fluffy animals when we find them. Faithful readers of this space will recall that I paid a visit to Bradfield Woods in Suffolk a few weeks ago to inspect a dormouse release project and to help with the feeding: grapes and half a rich tea biscuit.

So I was back again to see how things were going, and to meet the dormice for a one-on-one, as we journos say. The Suffolk Wildlife Trust was making the big autumn count, to see if the scheme was on target and whether there was a serious long-term future for dormice in this wood where they had become extinct.

But bugger the science and the conservation importance: what I really wanted to do was to see a dormouse up very close: to make eye contact, to gaze into those dark boot-button eyes in that round, furry face, and to feel myself infinitely richer as a result.

All this I did. The onwards-and-upwards animal evaded close scrutiny, but we found a family of four, mother and three fast-growing young: each about 10g, so they need to put on at least two more if they are to survive the long hibernation. (A quarter-apple is about 25g.) There was one feisty male: we could tell that he was not one of the captive-bred animals because he had no microchip. He was already 16g, and full of vim. The autumn had been good to him; he already looked fit enough to survive winter and come out next spring ready to breed. A dormouse for all seasons.

• AFTER the weighing and the hunting and the counting was all done, Simone Bullion, senior conservation officer with the trust, was able to come up with some hard figures. More than a quarter of the 200 nest boxes put out by the trust were being used by dormice. Of these, 13 had actual dormice inside, to a total of 46 animals. Of these, eight were the microchipped animals released into the wood. The rest, praise the Lord — or praise the conservationists — are Bradfield Woods natives, born this year, offspring of captive-bred introduced animals. The scheme is up and galloping; and the wood-bred dormice are now facing their next challenge — getting through the winter.

  The microchipped animals all had tales to tell. The females had mostly stayed put, but two of them, more adventurously, had travelled 50m, a fair journey for a female dormouse. The males are far more inclined to roam: one male was found 750m from his release cage, shacked up with two females, neither of which had been with him at release. One was an older female, the other a much younger one: typical second wife.

  Scientists tend not to go in for gushing, but Ms Bullion said that it was “very satisfactory”. The first stage of the project is that released animals stay alive. This they had done, as we learnt a few weeks ago. The second stage is that they breed: and they have manifestly done so. Now for the big test of the winter. So remind me to get down to the woods in spring to see how they’ve done. Onwards, let us hope, and upwards.

• SOME recipes for you. Take some brown ale, mix in brown sugar and molasses, and simmer for half an hour or so. Then paint it on to tree trunks: remembering that the stuff tends to leave a stain, so best be discreet. Recipe two: take some red wine and heat it up — you may prefer cheap stuff to château-bottled here — and then dissolve in some sugar. When it is cool, add some absorbent rope. Drape these ropes over plants. Also, spread out a white sheet and shine a bright light on it. Or just amble about with a torch around honeysuckle, ivy, night-scented stock and tobacco plants.

  You’re looking for moths. Tonight is National Moth Night. Target species include the super-sexy convolvulus hawk moth. You can find out more at www.nationalmothnight.info/2006/results.php and also send your findings there.

  Good hunting.

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