I Do NOT Like My Neighbors

HA!  Right away you are thinking I'm talking about my neighbors across the street, aren't you!  Well they need to be a blog unto themselves.  But that is not the direction I am going with this post.  I'm talking about a neighbor that is either newer to the neighborhood or one I just noticed recently.

We have skunks.

Ok, I think skunks are kinda like in the cockroach family.  They are EVERYwhere in this world.  But it's one of those animals that you don't see.  You might smell it once in awhile, or see one smooshed in the middle of the street, but you don't see them running around often.

A couple of months ago, Ron and I were sitting on the porch about 10:00 pm while he was having a cigarette.  I happened to turn around, and coming from the alley across the street to the alley on our side of the street was a mother skunk with four or five babies following in a line right behind her.  WTF!  That was something I have never seen!  And that was something I could have lived a lifetime without seeing . . . in MY neighborhood.

So there ya go.  That was just a fluke, right?  They were just passing through, right?

I haven't mentioned this lately, but I'm a bit anal retentive with a touch of CDO.  In case you didn't know that already.  My night time ritual is going around and making sure the windows are closed and locked and that the doors are locked.  I also give the neighborhood a once-over through my windows, making sure there is no police activity currently happening in front of my house.  I can't TELL you how many nights I look out the windows on my way to bed and see skunks!  Right by MY house!

I have seen them walking down my driveway, in front of my garage and searching for grubs or whatever throughout my yard.  I am very careful with the cat food I put outside, making sure I bring it back into the house before it's dark.  I want to attract all of the neighborhood cats but not the neighborhood skunks, raccoons, rats, mice, slugs or whatever.  Cats only.  I put signs out but none of the animals seems to read them.  But, I digress.

I don't think it's the cat food attracting the skunks.  I think they just love me and my yard.  What the heck!

I keep screaming to Ron every time I see a skunk outside and last night, they were right next to his car and I MADE him get out of bed to look!  I'm sure he believed me but I was starting to feel like I was making this stuff up.  And, since I don't know how to use any settings on my camera other than the "macro" setting, here is the best shot I got of two skunks in my yard!

  

Um, I added the arrows to make sure you could see the white stripes in my back yard.  I first caught these two from the bedroom window.  I ran downstairs with my camera and tried to take the picture out my dining room window.  I know enough to know that I wasn't going OUTSIDE to try to take this picture!  I sat on my window seat with Benny.  He saw the skunks through the window and he seemed to be a little too excited about getting out that window to go meet these interlopers.  I was afraid I would lose Benny through that window if I were to open it to get a flash shot of my skunks.  So this was the best I could do.  I know, I suck.

So there you go.  I do NOT like my neighbors.  More than just the ones in the house across the street.