Oh my God, I think I may have just driven a little toad to accidental suicide

Oh God. I feel so guilty. I think I may have just accidentally murdered a little toad. A dear little toad that never did nobody no harm. (That is a triple negative and therefore completely acceptable.)

See, I was walking back from the SU bar after having a birthday drink. (Hey, it's my birthday!) And I saw a little toad in the middle of the walkway, and it was just so cute that I knelt down to look at it, and I realized that if I left it to its own little toady devices it might get stepped on by a person who was walking in the walkway and failed to notice the toad. Because the toad, while very cute, blended in with the pavement a bit anyway, and plus it was getting darker and in the darkness it was even more thoroughly camoflaged. Which led to this truly horrific vision of some girl in spiky heels stepping on the dear little toad and impaling it because she didn't see it, and then the little toad would be dead, and she would feel incredibly guilty for impaling it with her spiky heel, the dear little toad that never did anything to her.

I thought, therefore, that I would save the little toad by convincing him to hop hoppily to the side of the walkway, where he would be as safe and sound as a, as a terribly safe and terribly sound thing. Something awfully safe and awfully sound. I took extreme care to urge the little toad to the side of the walkway, prodding him ever so gently with my toes until he hopped towards the edge of the walkway, where he would be saved from the terrible spiky-heel death I envisioned for him (poor little toad). Which led to a bunch of people giving me a funny look because I was poking a little toad with my foot and urging him on out loud.

But I'm so foolish! I didn't even realize it until the toad had already hopped really far to that side of the walkway, but the thing is that the side of the walkway towards which I was urging him ended in a FATAL DROP. I freaked out and nearly burst into tears, and I tried to convince the toad to hop the other way instead, but it wouldn't! It wouldn't hop back the way it had come! It was only willing to hop along the length of the walkway in a straight line forward, where it was still in peril of hopping off the end of the walkway!

I had to leave it eventually. I didn't want to see it kill itself. It hopped to the side of the walkway, and so it was not in imminent peril of death, and I hope it had the good sense to avoid hopping off the edge of the precipice, but I didn't stick around to see. Poor little toad. It was so cute. I loved it so. I wanted to be friends, but it feared me. I hope it didn't accidentally hop off the edge and die after I left.