On holiday in the US, Rhode Island, I was sat outside my hotel early one morning when a skunk meandered into view across the street.
Beautiful animal and ever so cute
Oh yeah, gorgeous animal, some people keep them as pets (after being descented and declawed). But if they get aggrivated it’s not those big black claws in the front that I worry about…
When I lived in Wilbur (yes, beautiful Wilbur Indiana, population 20-something, for fun we used to stand at one town sign and throw dirt clods at the sign on the other side of town.) I think there were more skunks than any where else. Every day on the way to work there was always the stench of skunk musk by the interstate where an unfortunate wanderer didn’t make it.
Colleen came to the garage wanting a picture of the Blue Jay she took from Bandit. It did not recover so she left it for the foxes and one took it a while later. We have had three different foxes today so far. They all look so much alike we have to go on size and behavior.
This album of 11 pictures is for today and I have made the pictures slightly smaller so they should load pretty quick on dial-up.
“We don’t serve hedgehogs here!” says the bartender.
“Dammit!” mutters the cat. “Let’s take these two over to Corky’s Barbecue. They’ll cook them for us.”
I went in to my day job on campus one day last week at about 6 am, surprising two fat 'coons rummaging the dumpster. They shuffled off around the corner, and then sat there about eight feet back, waiting to see if I was going to keep disturbing their breakfast. When I came around the corner, they took their time shuffling off up a load of ivy climbing the Neuroscience building, and sat about six feet up, a little off the path, waiting for me to pass so they could go back to it. Cheeky bastards!
When the Hallkids and I went to Virginia in February, we happened to be passing a store along the side of the road late one evening and caught sight of huge racoon, heading beside the building. I did a quick U turn and slid into the parking lot that wrapped around the side of the building. Sure enough, the racoon had made his (her?) way to the dumpster and was feasting on whatever food was laying on the ground.
We sat in the car with the headlights shining on it and watched it eat for about 10 minutes until another car came around the other way and scared it off. I’m sure the driver was wondering why we were scowling at him.
We lived in Oakland for almost 10 years. We had whole families of raccoons in the (small) wooded lot beside our apartment building. A few opossums, too. Not to mention the geese and other birds raising their broods in an around Lake Merritt and all the stuff just a few minutes drive into the hills. I suppose you can’t always see it from your porch, though.