A prickly situation

I like cacti.
Or at least I thought I did.
While in Croatia I had seem some beautiful flowering cacti and managed to resist the urge to touch them. At some point I saw a piece of a cactus that had broken off and was lying on the ground. I carefully picked it up using my thumb and index fingers and managed to avoid spearing myself with the giant needles. After taking some funny pictures, I returned the cactus piece to the ground only to discover that my thumbs were covered in dozens of tiny prickles.. which were hard to see and hurt whenever I touched something with my thumb. Managed to get most of them out right away, but the few that remained over the next few days reminded me to use better judgement in the future. So for now, I don't like cacti quite as much.