Here's where Luis was chipper/chopping on Saturday - under the evergreens next to the driveway. The exact place where the interloper was spotted. Yikes!!
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Monday, June 29, 2009 - Okay, so I was minding my own business (as usual) while I was walking down the driveway to pick up the newspapers at approximately 6:30 a.m. this morning. After we finished the work on pruning the honeysuckle bushes on Saturday (still more to do), I picked up everything we had used, so WHAT was that thing under the trees this morning???

While stopped in my tracks, I peered into the darkness under the trees and squinted my eyes and looked some more when horror of horrors, I realized that I was looking at a SKUNK with his tail in combat mode. At first, I thought he was a porcupine. No, it was a skunk. All black and white and skunky.

Well, that scared me awake. My adrenaline was coursing through my veins at a very fast rate. Maybe that helped my low blood pressure go a little higher? hmmmm

Anywho, I looked around and considered the classic "flight or fight" response. Fight, no. Flight, yes. But since it was so early and it's a holiday week, no one was awake yet. What to do? What to do? Remembering to NOT ever get anywhere near a wild (and smelly) animal, I walked to where the papers were lying and picked them up. My heart rate, I'm sure, was around 200 beats per second.

As I walked slowly back toward the house, the little stinker took off toward the driveway. OH NO!! He squeezed his scary little smelly body between the slats and went UNDER the deck. oh boy! Now, I can't ever go outside again. Yikes!!!

Don't mind the foxes -- they don't spray people with foul smelling poison. When they see a person, they run fast in the other direction.

Don't mind the raccoons -- they're too dumb to do anything.

Skunks, on the other hand, I DO NOT LIKE. I'm pretty sure, they have no natural predators. Who in their right mind would want to get near them???? Maybe the coyotes? Okay, then if that's the case, I have a new respect for the coyotes.

Better go. Just writing this is making me woozy. And it totally creeps me out. Wild life in the country just keeps getting weirder and weirder. byebye, djb