Close encounter of the skunk kind

So much for my day lily...

After delivering fresh homemade Easter Bread to my family last night, Lee and I took Shadow for a walk in the 9 p.m. darkness. It was a chilly walk, and Shadow hustled home in a hurry because he just got a haircut on Monday and feels the cold more keenly ever since. 

As we turned the corner of the house to our back gate, he was near the end of his leash... and it looked like there was a cat in the middle of the space between our place and our neighbour's house. Not wanting an altercation, I yanked on the leash, and Shadow paused long enough for me to realize I was looking at a cat with two definite white stripes up its back. 

"Wait, wait, wait!" I told the dog, hauling him closer to me, heart pounding, holding my breath in case we were about to be blasted with that special brand of perfume... 

But no. The little critter backed away, and quickly waddled along our neighbour's sidewalk and under the shrub on the corner of their house. Shadow didn't have a chance to bark or even growl before it disappeared.

Thank God!

I've been smelling a lot of marijuana smells around our house, and thought our neighbours might be indulging in a little cannabis lately. I even asked our nephew if he might be trying the stuff, though he's not that kind of guy. 

Turns out, I was smelling a small black-and-white critter, who has been sizing up my flowerbeds, looking for some tender vittles in the form of day lily tubers. It dug quite a hole, but I'm not sure it managed to sate its hunger very much before we interrupted its plans!

Sir or madam skunk, you can help yourself to all the tubers your little heart desires -- just please don't spray us!

(And to the humans walking around our neighbourhood, I recommend going in daylight hours when you can see our little skunk neighbour a long way off!)