A Nocturnal Pedestrian

Several nights ago, when I was cycling home, I almost ran over a hedgehog had my bicycle light not captured its crawling figure in the absolute darkness.

I braked in the nick of time and was luckily enough to avoid two misfortunes simultaneously: having the hedgehog injured and having the tire flat. Apparently, both of us were shocked. The little creature immediately rolled into a thorny ball and refused to move at all. I tried in both languages, English and Mandarin, to persuade it to go either forward or backward. But it stubbornly denied my kind suggestion: it remained stupefied and motionless.

Worried that it might get hit by another vehicle in such a dark night, I decided to help it move. I pushed it slowly with my feet toward the pavement. It was still resisting but started 'rolling' at last. It took several gentle kicks and about 5 minutes to return it safely to the corner.

Hopefully it is happy and safe now.

Next time when you try to cross road at night, it might be a good idea to speed up a little bit.


Photo from Think Spiky.