Seeing a hedgehog
Meeting a hedgehog after nightfall counted as very fortunate in Scotland, and Chinese tradition prized hedgehogs too. In real life the animal is a long-distance night walker that roams from garden to garden.
What it may mean
A hedgehog's night is a long walk. In search of beetles, caterpillars and worms, a single animal may cover a mile or more, passing through one garden after another, and it can only do that if there is a way through. In Britain, where solid fences and walls have cut many gardens off, people now make small holes, about the size of a CD case, at the bottom of their fences so hedgehogs can pass. Neighbors who have never spoken find themselves linked by a hedgehog route. The idea travels well beyond gardens. Many good things need a small gap to reach you: a friend who drops by without calling, a neighbor's help, an idea from beyond your usual crowd. A hedgehog crossing your lawn at night has most likely come through somebody's gap.
Depending on how you saw it
Crossing a lawn after dark
Hedgehogs are most active in the first hours of darkness, so a late walk home is the likeliest time to meet one, nose down, crossing a lawn with surprising speed. Which late sight has made you glad you were still up?
Frothing at the mouth and twisting
Hedgehogs sometimes chew a strong-smelling substance, whip up a froth of saliva and twist to spread it over their spines. Nobody is sure why. What do you still do without knowing why, and would you like to find out?
Why it happens in nature
European hedgehogs are nocturnal and can travel a mile or more in a night searching for insects, worms and other small prey. Fences and walls that cut gardens off make that harder, which is why small gaps at the base of fences are encouraged in Britain. Hedgehogs also self-anoint, spreading frothy saliva over their spines, for reasons not yet understood.
What folk beliefs say
China
Hedgehogs are lucky to the Chinese, a 1903 collection says.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 642. View the page
Scotland
In Scotland it was very fortunate to meet a hedgehog on the road, especially after nightfall.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 642. View the page
To reflect on
Where could a small gap in one of your fences let something good pass through?