As I said before, this
cousin and her husband used to live in a residential neighborhood with an
unusual number of wild animals right in the neighborhood. At least it seemed
that way to me when Dad and I visited when I was a teenager. {Smile}
I also mentioned that she
started leaving dogfood out for the raccoons, because she is a great animal
lover. Then the skunks found out and took over. Most people I know would stop
leaving out dogfood at this point. Not Dad’s cousin. She continued to leave
dogfood out for the skunks for years. I always did wonder what the neighbors
thought of this. {wink, Smile}
That was all before I got
there. By the time I did, Dad had visited twice without me: once when she was
leaving out dogfood for the raccoons, and once when she was leaving it out for
the skunks already. By the time I got to visit, too, the skunks were Very Well
Settled In. When I visited, one of the first things I was told that I would be
sharing a small apartment with Dad’s cousin’s husband’s granddaughter by his
first marriage, who was staying with them all summer, and working for them in
their laboratory as a summer job.
After dinner and whatever
we did afterwards, I was ready to go up tot he apartment to get ready for bed.
The route from the main house to the apartment went right past the skunk’s food
bowls, but I was told not to worry. Just walk firmly, and they shouldn’t bother
me. Well, I found the bowls... and skunk planted right in the middle of the
pathway I was supposed to use.
I froze, startled.
The skunk stared at me,
showing no fear.
Remembering they’d said
the skunks shouldn’t bother me, I started forward hesitantly.
The skunk went
thump-thump-thump-thump-thump with his front paws.
I froze.
I’d recently read or
heard (I remembered which back then) that skunks did a kind of stamping gesture
as a warning before spraying, because they didn’t like the odor any more than
anyone else did. This must be what they meant.
I turned around and
walked briskly back to the main house. There I found Dad’s cousin’s husband. I
told him about the skunk.
“What? Don’t worry about
the skunks,” he said.
“But he stamped at me,
and that’s supposed to be warning.”
“Just shoo them off. They
won’t bother you.”
“You know how to do that.
I don’t!” I told him, “Please help me. You said you would.”
“Oh, for crying out...
come on, and keep up.”
He stormed out of the
house and up the walk, shooing away the skunks very firmly when he reached the
bowls.
I did follow him... at
least 20 paces behind him. I hoped that was enough distance if he was wrong
about the skunks...
He wasn’t. They left
promptly for him, and he escorted me right up to the door of the apartment. I
thanked him profusely, of course. {BRIGHT SMILE}
Then he left. I actually didn’t have trouble with the
skunks after that. Maybe my escort that first night put me on their approved
list or something. But I didn’t get sprayed, and that was the important thing
as far as I was concerned. {wink, BIG GRIN}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
