6/12/2003

Skunk Rendezvous - Last night I was coming home from poker and video games, late as usual. I finally got a glimpse of the source of the overpowering and horrible smell that wafts into the house every week or so. A huge skunk was in the middle of the yard.

At first, I thought it was a big pile of rags someone had left in the yard, but it moved in the headlights and I realized what it was. Skunks are very amusing when they walk - a kind of fluffy shambling.

I turned the car as it walked out of my headlights to keep it illuminated. When it disappeared behind our hill, I went after it with a flashlight. Yes, I had had a couple of beers, but that had been hours before.

Skunky "the Skunkster" was just on the edge of the hill, waiting for me to come around to where it was dark. Proving that I was not insane, I decided it was not worth getting a better look. Also, I saw another pair of glowing orbs a few yards away in the darkness. Another skunk? I wasn't prepared to take that on, even if I did want to know where they were living.


We seem to have a lot of diversity in our small yard. "Rusty," another of our uninvited borders, is a gray squirrel we've sighted on a number of occasions.

"Look kids it's a gray squirr... waitaminute. Why is his tail all red?"

He's some sort of mutant reddish gray squirrel. Sure, all squirrels seem to have a little brownish-red cast to their fur (except for the mutant black ones). But this one was really reddish. Which makes sense, now, since his name is "Rusty."