What’s big and fluffy and black and white and takes midnight walks past our bedroom window? If your guess starts with an ‘S’ and ends with a ‘K’ and rhymes with ‘stunk,’ you’d be right.
The other night, Matt heard a rustling outside, and when he looked out the window he added a new animal to our official list of wildlife sightings.
The next night when we heard a meowing and a rustling outside of the bedroom window, he decided to go outside and join the party.
Through the open window from my cozy spot under the covers, it sounded a bit like this:
“Ralph!”
“Meow.”
“Ralph, where are you?”
“Meeee-oooor-owwww.” (She has quite a vocabulary).
“If I meet a skunk, I’m going to be really ticked off.”
My response: “If you meet a skunk, I’m closing the windows and locking the door. You can sleep with Ralph in the barn.”
Fortunately, the skunk did not reappear, and man and cat went to their respective beds no more smelly than usual.
In skunk-free daylight, Matt and Ralph head for the barn
Is there anyone out there who’s had a close encounter with a skunk?
Home on 129 Acres 
Oh yes! I about stepped on one once in the garden about 5 a.m. It was just as surprised to see me and my flashlight as I was it! Didn’t get sprayed, thank goodness.
I actually like having skunks around. They’re very good at finding yellow jacket nests and destroying them to eat the bees. That’s happened for me.
Yikes! That sounds like a close call. Thank goodness it didn’t spray you! Thanks for the tip on the yellow jackets. I didn’t know that.
“No more smelly than usual”, lol. I’m sure Matt would be happy to read that! We had a skunk hanging around a guide camp I once went to. It was so hot we had the bottom of the tents rolled up (are you familiar with the old military tents with the roll-up sides?), and one night we all woke up at once, silent, breathless, to the skunk walking over our sleeping bags! We were extremely fortunate that he/she just moseyed around and then waddled off on his/her way without so much as a tail twitch.
Oh my goodness… I would lay so, so still. I do think that illustrates that in most cases animals won’t bother us unless we bother them.
I agree, that is until I’m walking in the woods and it gets really quiet and I see giant claw marks in the trees and start thinking of the cougars that live in this area. Then I’m suddenly less confident of that philosophy.