If America were really exceptional, it would have hedgehogs. They can be sad as they're like turtles and don't well understand cars. They think curling up a ball will protect them from just about anything and usually that's true ... but not with cars.
No gardener will get sad about hedgehogs as they eat snails and slugs like they're potato chips. Cats and dogs apparently don't tangle with them as it seems they know better.
Here at the Rockhouse we would get the biggest bang out of poking around in the garden and seeing a fearless li'l hedgehog rooting around in there. Alas, zero hedgehogs in the Americas.
The beauty part is some genius thought every creature represented in Shakespeare should also be present in America and this person is reputed to be the one who brought starlings over here. They're the Republicans of ornithology as starlings lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and then take everything for themselves so the other baby birds die.
(Ed: that's not much of a beauty part)
So this guy who thought starlings, horrible animals that they are, were so vital but he did not bring any hedgehogs. There are two possibilities and the first is he was as dumb as one of those birds or perhaps he was adhering strictly to the premise of his effort, only creatures represented in Shakespeare can come. That being the case, it's Shakespeare's fault their are no hedgehogs in America because he failed to mention them in his writing.
A marginally-related beauty part is that some kid caught half a dozen or so lizards in some other country and 'forgot about them' when coming home. Descendants of those lizards can now be seen anywhere in Cincinnati where they have established a stable breeding population. We don't know if starlings eat them, tho.
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