A column in this morning's newspaper reminded me of an incident that happened years ago. One evening after it was already dark, I decided to sit out on a bench in the backyard just to be alone with my thoughts. It was peaceful and quiet and I don't remember where I was in my mind when I realized that something was trotting up the pavement towards me. Within moments, I went from "okay, it's an animal" to "it's a smallish animal" to "is it a cat?" and finally I determined "it's a skunk!"
It was minding its own business, running along with its head pointed down, heading towards me from the left. It was pretty oblivious for awhile, maybe lost in its own thoughts, and finally came to an abrupt stop when it finally noticed me. And we both just looked at each other, probably both scared (I know I was!). I remember thinking "this could be the worst day of my life." After all, he stopped where he couldn't have been more than a few feet from me.
Luckily, my instinct was to not react. I just sat there and looked at him. If I seemed calm, I wasn't. But everything was internalized as I waited for him to do something first. And after staring into each other's eyes for who knows how long, he decided to turn himself right around and ambled back in the direction from which he came. Whew!
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