In case you don't remember all of our posts over the years, Ripley (our dog) is a hunter. She loves being outside ALL day long and chasing birds, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, cats, deer, and anything else wild that enters her perimeter. (Ripley Kill Count update, add another bird this week.)
On occasion this has put our previously "city" dog in trouble. She has been sprayed by a skunk 3 times. (Okay, she doesn't learn very quickly that black and white cats are bad news).
All this leads me to yesterday after dinner. While finishing up with dinner dishes, I looked out the back window to see two white things bouncing along the edge of our yard. Since it was right past the playset and sort of through the rabbit fence around the garden, I was having trouble seeing exactly what it was. At first glimpse, it looked like a white ferret. Well that is odd, I thought. Until a second glance clearly determined that it was two young skunks. ACK!!!! I screamed.
The kids were frightened and Zack was looking at me like I was a crazy person. I bolted out the back and yelled for the dog. That's when the skunks heard me and scooted under my neighbor's shed. The shed 20 feet from our garden. The shed 30 feet from our playset.
Unfortunately, this is going to be something I will obsesses about all summer. Until I see two dead, decaying carcasses lying about the yard, I will worry when we have summer evening bonfires, when the kids are out after dark catching fireflies, and since they were out in daylight hours (it was 6:30pm) when I head to the garden, when the kids are playing on the playset, when the dog is out in the yard. Let's hope our neighbor takes his gun and waits up one night for some target practice. Because, this is what people do in the country, right???
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