Just living is not enough…

One must have sunshine, freedom,

And a little flower.

Hans Christian Anderson

I was in another deep dark crawl space

I had baited two live-traps the prior night

I was hoping to catch a tiny orphaned kitten

Starvation and death would soon be its plight

But as my eyes slowly adjusted to the eerie darkness

I soon saw three strange creatures through the cage slats

In one cage forlornly sat two tiny black and white babies

In the other sat their mother – and none of them were cats

The cat food bait that I had left here overnight

Had attracted three members of a skunk family

As I gazed upon these three critters in my traps

My mood was now far removed from glee

I had been sprayed by skunks a time or two before

And the messy cleanups had never been too much fun

As I painfully remembered these prior experiences

My first impulse was to turn around and run

But I quickly realized that this was not a solution

Leaving them in these traps would mean their demise

So now I just stood there frozen in time

As Mama skunk gazed defiantly into my eyes

For some strange reason I suddenly thought of Bambi

And the skunk in that cartoon by the name of Flower

So I sat myself down in the dirt by the cages

And talked to Mama skunk for about an hour

I told her that I meant no harm to her or her family

And that my goal was to now set them all free

And as we peered into each others souls and eyes

I very politely asked her to please not spray me

Flower never hissed or acted aggressively

She somehow seemed to understand me

So I slowly got up and approached her babies

And she patiently watched as I set them free

Then I slowly moved to her live-trap

And gently lifted the small hinged door

Flower very daintily strutted right out

And now stood next to me on the floor

She peered directly into my eyes once more

As if she were truly thanking me

And then she and her two little babies

Walked off into the darkness – once again free

I managed to trap that little kitten the next day

And Tuffy now lives very happily in our home

But I’ll never forget that conversation with a skunk

No matter where else on this green earth I may roam

©2004, an excerpt from Curious Creatures-Wondrous Waifs, My Life with Animals,

by Ed Kostro