Behold the skunk. The first European to encounter one, a Jesuit priest, referred to it as 'the devil's cat'. It's so pretty, isn't it? The stench it gives off when its flight-or-fight is triggered is the worst smell in the known universe. It lingers and is really hard to get rid of. This is why skunks are so placid: they are masters of chemical warfare. No animal annoys a skunk twice.

This is also why you get this fuzzy photo. Normally, the skunks only come out after dark, when my camera doesn't work without a flash. Which I'm not turning on around a skunk. This one happened to venture out at twilight, and I shot its photo out the side door. That is as close as I'm going to get.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

28.09.20 Front Page

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