Igel sighting

Last night when we were driving home from dinner, a hedgehog went lumbering in front of our car. Luckily he was in the middle of the crosswalk, so I of course stopped. There's something undefinably charming about hedgehogs, and I don't think I'm alone in saying that since there are posters all over Switzerland with pictures of hedgehogs that basically say "Let Me Live" (i.e., don't run me over), and there are also posters at the airport for an organization called Pro Igel. (As it turns out, the German word for hedgehog is Igel, pronounced "eagle". We learned this last year when we mentioned to our landlord that we had seen a hedgehog and he said "oh, an Igel" and we were like, "no, it was a round thing crawling on the ground in the garden," and he was like, "yes, an Igel," and we were like, "no, it wasn't a bird, it was a little fuzzy rodent." We eventually got it.)

Anyway, last night was a BIG night for wildlife around here, because shortly after sparing the cute little Igel's life, a fox darted in front of our car and hurdled a fence into one of the community gardens. Then, in the middle of night when Gretchen took Grady out she stepped on a slug--I've never seen more slugs than I have this summer in Basel--in her bare feet. Who needs the zoo?