Flotsam

If you’ve followed along in my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I walk my dog every morning, come rain or shine. And in the hot months we go earlier and earlier to avoid the heat. That means that we often see, and sometimes interact, with the wildlife as it is changing from night shift to day shift.

Some critters are ever present, like the wild donkeys, and the rabbits, and the crows. And some we see only once in awhile. This morning for example, we were treated with watching a young skunk cavorting around one of the homes we know has cats that they let roam…which means that they also leave cat food out. Consequently we have seen skunks, raccoons, possum, and once in awhile, rats as they scurry around the yard. Oh we get to see ground squirrels and chipmunks as well, but the former more than the latter.

So far we have not ever frightened or threatened any of our wild neighbors, so they do not bite, spray or kick us. Even though every human we have ever passed walking their dog, has always warned us (Logan and I) about how aggressive the donkeys are to dogs, we usually wind up with them trying to follow us home (the donkeys, not the people). My husband’s theory is that our huge dog looks like a baby donkey to them, plus he doesn’t bark or posture at them when we see them…he’s mostly calm.

He has only ever been in “alert and protect” mode when there are people carrying “weapons” (in our neighborhood, many people carry golf clubs for protection), or when other people’s dogs are threatening the bunnies.

But I digress, the skunk this morning (as whenever we see them) seems to be cavorting. They move in a joyful undulation, making me think of fiddle music for some reason. Their black and white fur waves about in the breezes they create as they are skipping happily around. It saw us and considered spraying us, I think, as it raised its tail, but it did not aim it at us, and once satisfied that we were not coming towards it (we had stopped to allow it to go its way), it joyfully went off, tail relaxed.

It is small moments like these that I savor as we are doing our morning walks.