A few days ago, I looked outside to investigate what the dogs were barking at. I thought it was going to be a cat, but I quickly recognized the tell-tale black and white markings of a skunk on the other side of the ditch, trying to find the best way to cross over onto our side. I ran back into the house to grab the camera and tell Tom about my new find. He opted to stay inside (which is probably the sane thing to do.) Anyway, I was too excited to worry about getting sprayed because we had been discussing with some friends just the night before, about how no one ever sees live skunks. They only seem to show up as road kill. And statistically, skunks are probably the most often hit thing on the road. We figured that this might be due to the fact that skunks aren't really scared of humans like mountain lions might be. Of course, mountain lions have fangs and claws, but skunks have stink, and the confidence to know they can use it against almost anything. (Except, they haven't figured out that the threat of stinking doesn't scare those rapidly approaching metal things on wheels hurtling toward them.)
Well, I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures. They were a bit too far away to get any great shots. The flash going off a bunch of times is probably what scared them off (yup, there were two) running away with their tails pointing straight up in the air. I thought the tails pointing upward was just how they ran when they wanted to be cute, but Tom told me they were in spray mode and that my flash probably ticked them off! I guess I was lucky they didn't decide to let one go as a warning shot!
Here are some pics. It was pretty dark, so the quality isn't so hot.
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