Critter Jitters

I must share the tale of the guard-skunk who stood duty at our gate Thursday night.
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Sarah returned from a college class at 8pm and walked to our gate, never expecting her way to be blocked by Pepe LePew. She quickly backpedaled when she nearly walked into him. All she saw was skunk-butt and tail! He gave her a look and raised his tail as she scrambled to get out of the way.

She waited till he wandered away and then hurried in the gate.
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Half an hour later Jacob returned from Mutual. Luckily he saw the skunk, who was back at the gate, before getting out of his Young Men leader's car. They beeped the horn, making the skunk jump nervously, until the little guy finally hid in the culvert under the driveway. Thank goodness the honking didn't make him unload his scent glands on our house! (Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the first time...or second...or third...)
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The picture above is from the Internet, not my camera--I'm not that crazy! Sarah says this is pretty much how the tail looked, bushy and rising upward.

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Much as I love our country life, there can be a few drawbacks!
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Our raccoon friends continue to visit us (and our cats' food) regularly. One night last month, Diego caught the raccoon family unawares. The parents got away, but 3 babies escaped into the porch rafters, where they got stuck. Sarah and I watched them try to figure out how to get down for the longest time, while the parents were in a nearby tree scolding them. We finally gave up and went to bed, and they were gone the next morning.

I tried to film the baby raccoons' efforts without much success. They were right under the porch light, but my digital camera didn't capture the light too well. I've found that these dark clips show up okay on a nice flatscreen monitor (like the one I have at school) but not so much on the plain old monitors (like the one I have here at home). Anyway, if the clip shows up on your monitor, I hope you enjoy it!