"Man, that's the last time I try human food." Russell said to himself, as he continued to wash his scales clean of sticky syrup in the bathroom sink. The little hedgehog had let his curiosity get the better of him, and he'd sampled some of the pancakes he'd seen his owner eat. The end result had been scales full of syrup.
Russell had just finished rinsing himself off, content he'd gotten the last of the syrup out of his scales, when the bathroom door swung open. Frightened ever so slightly, Russell instinctively curled up into a little ball and refused to move.
If Russell had bothered to come out of his ball form, he would've seen that he had nothing to fear, it was only his owner. And despite the fact that the sink was running despite there being no one in sight, the elderly woman didn't think anything of it. "I must've forgotten to turn off the sink after I freshened up this morning." She thought to herself, and moved to turn the faucet knobs and shut off the flow of water. In the process, her elbow ended up inadvertently knocking Russell off the counter.
With a light splash, the hedgehog (still curled up in a ball) fell into the toilet bowl. Fortunately for Russell, he was light enough to float on top of the water, and said water was clean.
Russell's owner smiled as the flow of water slowly stopped, hopefully her water bill wouldn't go up as a result of her mistake. Speaking of mistakes, the woman could see that there was something floating in the toilet, though with her poor eyesight she couldn't make out what that something was. "Huh, did I forget to flush the last time I was in here?" She pondered, but didn't dwell on the matter for long. A courtesy flush probably wouldn't hurt.
Although he was still curled up in his ball form, Russell was able to hear quite clearly. And what he heard was enough to make his fur crawl. His owner had just flushed the toilet, with him still inside it! "Oh no!" Russell cried, and uncurled himself, but it was too late! The water was already spinning around and around, taking Russell with it on its downward journey.
All Russell could do was take a deep breath of air, as he felt himself be pulled down the drain and into the pipes. He knew there was only one way he was leaving now, through the sewers. "I just hope Big Al doesn't mind unexpected guests, and that he'll tolerate the unfortunate smell I've discovered." Russell thought to himself, and curled back up into his ball form, while he waited for the tell tale splash informing him that he'd plunged into the sewers, and could now swim his way to the nearest drain pipe.