Morning Visitor

This morning, as Nick was going out the front door to his car, he noticed something unusual in the driveway. He called me to the door to take a look, so I rushed to see what was going on. Unfortunately, I didn't have my contacts in or glasses on, but I looked out anyway. I saw what sort of looked like a rabbit--sort of. Whatever it was looked pretty fuzzy to me, and not because it was furry. Well, it wasn't a rabbit. Nick told me it was a skunk! It didn't look to be in any sort of hurry, and this complicated things a bit since it was time for Nick to leave for work. Fortunately, some quick thinking and modern technology came to the rescue. Nick used his remote keyring to blast his car horn 4 or 5 times. Mr. Skunk turned tail and ran down the drive without leaving any sort of lasting reminder, thank goodness! It was a comical sight. I never knew skunks could run like that! Many times in the past we've whiffed evidence that there are skunks around here, but this was our first up close and personal encounter.

A few minutes later as I was preparing to leave, I heard the unmistakable "gobble gobble gobble" of a wild turkey. Although he must have been nearby I never did see him. We have been surprised by wild turkeys on our evening walks in the past. When a good-sized turkey suddenly flies across the road in front of you, it's a bit of a surprise, to say the least.

Just two nights before, we were surprised when Toby took off down the drive like a shot. We couldn't imagine what was going on, but he was down the drive and across the road (without stopping to look both ways) in a matter of seconds. Soon, Nick saw the reason. Toby had spotted a young deer and was in hot pursuit. He chased her until he was tired of the sport and then came back home. We were quite suprised by our dog's sudden interest in deer hunting, being that we are not hunters, and prefer just looking at deer to shooting at them. I guess Toby just couldn't deny his instinct this day. We've been told his mother was quite an excellent deer hunting dog. She would have been proud.

So, these are my accounts of our recent close encounters with Indiana wildlife. I'm sorry to say I have no pictures of the critters to share, but we won't forget about then anytime soon.