Beneath the eucalyptus is the darkest part of the path along the creek, obscure even in a full moon. A fellow could twist an ankle if he’s not careful. I am careful, and I run with an eye to the ground.
A black cat runs out away from me, into the light, and I startle, and then a dark shape moves before me in shadow. It is another cat, big and black, and I stop two feet away so as not to stop on her. I can barely see.
She walks up to me tentatively, sniffs a pant leg, and then runs for the creek.
In a pool of moonlight just before the tall grass I see her, the deep blue-black fur,
and the two broad white stripes from collar to tail.
This is funny! I am still chuckling and for some reason thinking Pepe Le Pew.
That’s a pretty brazen er… kitty.
=v= Not just le Peu, but perhaps one of his many hapless inamorata who happened to stroll into two parallel lines of white paint.
Close call, but a good critter encounter nonetheless.
Many people have skunks as pets; yours seems to be making the request. A little operation and voila, you have a descented interesting relationship.
Mer-row!
A little bit OT, but when my son (who was then about 18 months old) saw the neighbors’ daschhund for the first time, he said, “Mouse!”
Charlie, my next door neighbor’s toddler, when I lived elsewhere and had two dachshunds, used to call them “wolves.” At least as absurd as “mouse”!
Heh. Just went back and read prior posts, including Zeke being called part wolf. At least he looks like one. Hard to believe dachshunds and wolves could ever be the same species. What the hell happened there?
Breeding, Leslee, and more breeding.
Chris, your good thoughts have made you many friends in the animal kingdom, just don’t blow it or we’ll have to take up a tomato juice collection to keep you blogging and fit for the public.
Better stock up on tomato juice. I hear it works!
A similar encounter in very urban Mass - I had been finding what I thought were cat poops in a flower bed. One evening, coming home from a walk, I saw a large cat digging in the bed. I marched up, hissing to scare it away. When I got close enough to see it better in the shadows, sure enough it was M. or Mlle. LePew. Being an urban skunk, it was used to people and didn’t get upset. It just gave me a look that said, “you know what I could do if I wanted, but I just can’t be bothered” and trundled off.