Imagine you are a baby hedgehog, peering out at the new world through your sleepy little eyes. It's a gorgeous, sunny day, so you go for your first trundle through the forest. Life is good. Far across a stretch of flat ground, you spot some juicy slugs that you'll have for breakfast. Off you go!
What you don't know is that the flat ground is the N6 to Galway. You're headed for the slugs, thinking happy thoughts. The driver of a blue-grey Renault Megane is headed for Loughrea, listening to the Gerry Ryan Show.
Splat!
"If only. . ." your tiny but perfectly-formed animal soul reflects as you drift up to hedgehog heaven. "If only that ambitious young man had thought of fitting a simple animal warning device to his car. Those two small plastic whistles would have generated a noise of up to 60 decibels, inaudible to humans but quite loud for me and other animals - then I would have looked up in time, and got out of his way."
Alternatively, you could imagine you are a little, baby slug. One that gets away. . .
The Animal Warning Device, £9.95 sterling plus 50p sterling post and packaging, is available from Anderson Speciality Products, PO Box 311, Canterbury, Kent CT2 0DS. England.
