Pardon us, sir, just a quick spot check, only take a minute. Hmm, front tire seems all right, nice pressure. Those shoes aren’t regulation, however. Gotta take points off there. All right, boys, I think the velodrome is down the road this way…
Submittercycled by AJ and Megan W. (via Laughing Squid)
I’ve been thoroughly explored by more than one skunk as an adult. When I was significantly younger I actually walked down the road with several skunks more than once. They lived in the hedge across from the house I grew up in and chose to join me on my nightly walks. They’d walk from one end of the hedge to the other with me, chittering away. They never went beyond the hedge, no matter which direction I was walking in.
What a treat!
That was terrifyingly cute!
A chemist friend told me that the fumes from burning rubber and the
fumes from peeved skunks smell similar because they share a lot of
chemical compounds. Maybe this is why these fluffernutters are so
interested in his tires? Love their wispy wobblewalk!
I love skunks, I don’t even mind their smell when they come in my back yard at night.
On the other hand, my dog was sprayed by a skunk while we were camping when I was a kid and my dad put him in the car to take home and wash with a lot of tomato juice. The smell never really came out of the seats and would come back every time it rained. That was not pleasant!
Yikes! When mom’s tail went up, I thought “Oh-oh.”
I’ve had a couple of close encounters, too. I rescued a baby skunk out of a window well with a bucket on the end of a push broom (I don’t know how old they have to be before they start spraying, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way). The other time, I opened the back door to find an adult skunk eating out of the cat food dish right next to the door–which I promptly closed as gently as possible!
I love skunks, except when they spray outside our bedroom window. I’d love to have a domestic one, since they’re in the same family as ferrets, which I’ve had 4. We have a momma and her 2 kits that visit under our front window. They’re sort of used to people and if we don’t scare them, they let me come out my front door and just go about their business and listen to me talk softly to them.
One February a randy pair of skunks somehow got into our basement crawlspace
in the middle of the night and went at it very fragrantly. Had to have windows
open for days – the whole house stank.
It’s the Tour de France pit crew, the Le Pew family. So wonderful and adorable.
Commenters, your stories are making me LOL at work (again).
I was expecting one racing stripe down the middle of the back, not matching stripes at the side. Did Warner Bros. lie to me?
Lots of different kinds of skunk! Two stripes, one stripe, spots, etc. These two-stripers look like the ones I have in my neighbourhood (in south-central Ontario).
Clearly I’ve been missing out, only seeing 1 type. Or maybe not getting close enough to look at the stripe pattern.
In my burb you can almost name the street by the patterns on the skunks. They range from nearly all white looking to nearly all black and everything in between. The ones on my street tend towards the nearly all black with just white on their tail tips and sometimes on their heads. Thankfully I have never been sprayed nor have any of the dogs we had growing up. I only have “inside” pets now so that is not a worry. But those nearly all black ones have caused me some unhappy surprises because they are hard to see when you are coming home at 3 am and they are rooting around your front stoop…
Mmmmm, are you sure this wasn’t your parents’/boyfriend’s weapon to discourage you from coming home at 3 am? Just saying. 😀
LOL! Nope! Sometimes I still come home at 3 am…Every once in a blue moon they will spray so close to the house that you think they HAVE to be inside somewhere. The smell will be so strong that it will sometimes cause one or both of my bunny girls to thump in disgust.
Ah, I remember those days – sans skunks, but memorable nonetheless…….
… Close Encounters of the Smelly Kind …
I love how the babies seem to flow around the Mama as they walk. Lovely creatures.
Waves of floof!
Wow. Be still my heart, that’s about – oh, heck, everything I see here is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. But those bopping tails and the stick-(stink?)toitiveness of the little pack has sent me over the moon. I know there are a lot of people who have skunks as pets – even albinos (skunks that is) – all sorts. I was amazed to see the different kinds. I’m all aquiver?
I also loved the way they all clustered as they trotted down the road, but I’d be terrified of being sprayed. I’d be standin’ there like old Tom in the Jefferson Memorial.
I love skunks, don’t see them nearly enough. I was lucky one evening to learn about their warning system: summer night, my friend drops me off at the corner and i go to cut across the yard to the door. I hear the sound of little feet stamping, so I stop, and practically next to me is a skunk with his white striped tail up and butt, um, facing me. I saw that and took off for the door and didn’t get sprayed. I read somewhere that skunks sometimes stamp their feet like this as a final warning, and it really worked for me….
Yes, they do stomp. I have friends that have pet skunks, all adopted from a rescue. I haven’t had much direct contact with them but they post about them on Facebook.
Lawd, the sounds!! Swoon! Speakers UP!!!
I agree with the skunk fans. I love how they float down the road as the fluffy Ontario welcome committee. They offer their squeeky approval with mom and keep moving to inspect other smelly tires that they might welcome to Ontario.
We don’t have skunks in the UK. After watching that, I almost wish we did. I never knew they talked!!!
The way they move together reminds me of a comet.
A group of skunks is called a Surfeit.
I like A Cloud of skunks. Or A Wave of skunks.
Cloud of and Wave of do go with the possibility of smell. Lol.