Black-and-Whites

Some of you may know that Pretty knits. You may also know that she occasionally knits like a maniac to meet deadlines, and that is exactly what she was doing the other night. . .trying to make some headway on these mitts for a party last night, and forgoing sleep until the wee hours of Friday morning. Pretty was verrrrryyyyyy tired at work on Friday.

These are the times I wish I could turn it all off and sleep like a swaddled Peanut! But even though it was late, and I was stressed, I did get to see something pretty cool. . .

As I sat there in the front room, knitting and watching TV with the volume turned way down low (A League of Their Own was the movie, and I totally missed the last half-hour in all the excitement), I heard some rustling outside (open windows, lovely night), and so did the cats. The cats were actually competing frantically for the prime real estate on that driveway-facing windowsill. "What the ---?," thought Pretty. Oh, the skunks.
My neighbor (a kind and lovely woman whose company I enjoy on the rare occasions when we are both at home, and outside, at the same time, and neither of us is running in or out like chickens on a mission), my neighbor has a porch. It's a lovely porch that she added to her home shortly after she moved in. Apparently, it's also a lovely home for the black-and-whites!

Five, count 'em, FIVE baby skunks were rooting around under that tall, grassy bunch of foliage! (I know, it's a bad cell-phone photo at night, but I couldn't get all 5 with the camera, which takes slightly-less-grainy night shots.) They were going back and forth, in and out from under that porch. . .

. . .through the side yard to frolic in the grass and look for grubs and bugs (they eat grubs and bugs, right?). . .

. . .never venturing very far from the tall grass, planted just for them to dash under and hide, apparently!

They were cute, "stinkin' cute!," and apparently not at all bothered by me hanging out the window with my camera! That's good, because I cannot really think of a smell that I dislike more than fresh skunk when I step outside (or streaming in through the open windows on a cool summer night). I never did see the mama or the papa, but I assume they were somewhere under that porch. After all, they had clearly put all of the kids to bed at a decent hour, there's no reason they should stay up, expecting the kids to sneak out to goof off with their friends after bedtime, right Army Boy? Wait, skunks are nocturnal, they SHOULD expect that. I'm gonna go over there and let them know just what those kids were up to last night. . .they really need some parenting advice, and I'm gonna give it to 'em!. . .

On second thought, maybe I'll just knit. I'd rather tangle with sheep and alpaca than with stinky black-and-whites! I don't think I have ever heard of anyone knitting skunk yarn. . .

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health, and please don't do anything startling in my yard anytime soon!