Early Morning Fright

It's Tuesday and school's on break, so it must be a Repost Tuesday!  

Yeah?  

Luckily, I have not had reason to add too many "skunk sighting" posts of late. Sure, I still smell the buggers, but I have not seen one in quite a while. (Well, I've seen a couple, but those times I was safely ensconced in my car.) Whew. I originally posted this on January 1, 2008.  

Oh my! I saw the skunk!

There is a skunk in the neighborhood. The distinctive odor of eau de skunk permeates the air every so often. But honestly, when I don't smell the skunk, I don't think of the skunk.

So, this morning after returning home from my New Year's Eve out, I went out to retrieve the mail as usual. I noticed the scampering creature but didn't really see it at first. By the time it registered to me that it was a skunk, I was viewing its back end as it was scurrying away from me.

It was black with the very distinctive white markings. Its tail was in the air--a black tail framed in white. I saw all of this as the skunk jumped off the sidewalk and into the gutter. Then it disappeared under the sidewalk into a storm drain.

Very carefully I continued on my way to the mailbox, traversing the sidewalk right above where the skunk had disappeared moments earlier. Then I practically ran to the mailbox and returned to my home just as quickly. My heart was racing, but luckily the neighborhood stink bomb did not return.

I'm sure glad Pepe Le Peu picked flight over fight. I don't even want to think about how I would have gotten rid of skunk stench in the wee hours of New Year's Day.