true story
On Friday, Shawn's office held "Bring Your Dog to Work Day". After much hemming and hawing, Shawn decided not to bring either of our dogs for various reasons. He wasn't bringing Jinx because as well-behaved as that dog is, he's a puss. He would whine the entire time because he just wanted to play with the other dogs. Shawn would constantly have to be reprimanding him and it could also annoy the coworkers. Whereas, Annie would just lie under his desk like a lump of fur, we didn't trust leaving Jinx alone in the house without her. We're sure he would be fine, but every so often he gets mischievous and without Annie to torture during the day, what household item would he turn to?So we left the house in the morning without a dog.Shawn felt bad by lunch time and drove home and picked up Jinx. Who of course whined the first hour he was at the office. Heh. They all work in an open space and other people had their dogs running around. Shawn kept Jinx on leash, only because that way he doesn't have to worry about having to keep an eye on him and you know, it's just polite in an open space. Plus one of his friends was terrified of dogs and of course they all migrated to him. Poor guy.So when Shawn picked me up after work on Friday I had a Jinxy in the car, totally out of sorts (he doesn't like riding in the car when Annie isn't there. He's so bloody co-dependant this dog!) but happy to see me. When we got home a little before 6PM and pulled into the drive way, I saw something dart under our steps. Bells went off in my little head as, though I didn't see WHAT went under I registered the black and white colouring. However, it was a long black tail with a little cap of white on the tail, so I honestly thought it was one of the many cats that wander around our street.I thank fate for a few things. 1) That I had remembered to turn the porch light on before work so that our front door/stoop was lit up. 2) That I happened to notice the dart of colour as we were turning into the drive way. Why? Because as I said to Shawn "Something black and white just ran under the steps, don't let Jinx out yet" we didn't know if it was a cat or... a skunk. Sure enough after 30 seconds or so, this little skunky head peeked out from under the steps and sniffed around.We stayed in the car. Oh, yes.We watched this huge fat skunk waddle its way over to the neighbours steps and go under there. Only it had this weird un-skunk-like tail (which my father-in-law told us yesterday normally means the little skunk is ill, perhaps with rabies!) it looked very cat-like. We figured it was the offspring of Pepe Le Pew and that poor little girl kitty who never wanted to be his girlfriend in the first place.And again, we stayed in the car.Skunky peeked out from under the neighbours' steps and the continued to wander away from our house.*waddle* *waddle* *waddle*It's like watching Annie wander around the house. Same colouring too. Slightly similar fragrance. ;)I am so happy I saw this happen because in the last year we have taken to just letting the dogs out of the car in the driveway without their leash since they just run up to the front door anyhow (Annie is always desperate to get out of the car, into the house, into the backyard to potty. No matter how long we're in the car. She's strange. She also has to run to the backyard to potty AFTER WE TAKE HER FOR WALKS! She's strange. But I digress...)Had we arrived home only seconds later I would not have seen fat skunky dart under the steps and we would have let Jinx out and the skunk would have seem him and ... bad things.I am not used to seeing skunks wander around at the end of November, but it's been so mild I think their hibernation schedules are all messed up. Poor little buggers. We didn't have the skunk problems we had last year, last year they were everywhere, this year very few.Why are these creatures so cute? It's not fair! All I want to do is go out there and feed and snuggle the little guy. Poor waddling creature. Especially if its sick, I feel bad. :( I just want to be its friend.I will also provide proof of how Annie and the skunk are not too far removed...
They have similar faces. Cute little noses and rings around their eyes. Not to mention, three of Annie's 5 puppies had that same white line down their nose!
They both have white stripes down their backs. Annie's has been getting whiter lately, leading me to believe her inner skunk is breaking free.(Not to mention, she's rather smelly at times.)
I dare you to try and pick Annie out of this line-up. You won't be able to do it. I promise you. Look at all those glazed stares! How can you tell the difference!