My skunk story

Last night I went searching for my cat. She frequently goes adventuring down at the bottom of the hill and out in the fields past the road. So, I grabbed a flash-light and thought that by shining the light I could hopefully detect her gleaming little eyes and be able to bring her in for the night.

In the fields past the road there is a marsh-like area which during the day resounds with the noise of hundreds of little birds happily taking baths. But at 11 at night, the only sound I could hear was rustling. A lot of rustling in fact, which made me think that perhaps my cat was down there. I got to the edge of the marsh and shone my flashlight. Instead of a cute little tabby cat, I discovered a whole family of skunks, rooting around in the tall grass. None of them seemed terribly disturbed by my presence, so I decided to give them a wide berth and look for kitten elsewhere. I shone my light and saw a gleam of kitten eyes around the other side of the marsh, so I started to head that way.

Apparently, however, there were more skunks than I had anticipated. And apparently I got too close to an over-protective mama skunk. As I was walking, I suddenly heard a very loud rustling to my left, followed by a SHRIEK! CHATTER CHATTER CHATTER and this animal comes bounding out of the marsh towards me. I'm not scared of little night creatures, but when they possess the ability to spray you with one of the most terrible smells ever invented, I run like my life depended on it. This was a persistent skunk, and it chased me all the way back to the road, chewing me out in skunk speech the whole way.

I decided against searching for Whiskey any more that night, although as I left I swept my flashlight across the fields one more time, and I could see those gleaming kitten eyes still in the distance. I could have sworn they looked amused.

In case you're wondering what a mad skunk sounds like, here is a good representation.