Let him know that you know best...

So why did the echidna cross the road?

I pondered this as I brought my car to a halt and watched him leisurely wander across the road.

As I went to take my foot off the brake and head off on my way, it suddenly occurred to me... perhaps he didn't have a reason....

I quickly slammed my foot back down on the brake and set the hazard lights in motion. Just as I had guessed Mr Prickly had decided that he didn't know why he'd bothered to cross the road at all since there was no Mrs Prickly or food on the other side of the road, and lets face it, what else do echidnas have in their daily routine? So he'd started his random strolling back across the road again.

On several occassions I have been faced with tutrles suffering the same soul searching on the roads, and normally stop the car, pick them up and plonk them safely back in the shrubs on the side of the road. As i bent over to pick up Mr Spikey Pants I decided that this approach was not going to be very adaptable to the situation... Turtles can be a bit slimy, but the echidna had a whole new defence system and he thought he might just show me how sharp he was.

Determined to outwit the little bugger (even if it was for his own good) I proceeded to stand behind him and stomp my feet to encourage him to conitnue back to the safety of the sidelines. Obviously this was the point where the school bus rumbles down the road with twenty school kids wondering what the crazy lady was doing stomping and jumping all over the road!! Eventually Spikey Mikey decided he too should be well advised to get as far away from the crazy lady as possible and finally made it to the sidewalk, where he kindly posed for a photo and expressed his confusion as to what all the fuss had been about!!