I had an encounter tonight.
Part of my walk home goes by a church parking lot. The sidewalk has a bit of grass on either side between the street on my right and the church parking lot on my left. As I was walking by I saw a police suv in the parking lot, which is not abnormal but this one was parked across several parking spaces.
So, I glanced at it a few times and one of those times I saw something move in the periphery of my vision. I looked down at the motion and there was a small black shadow moving around. For a second I couldn’t resolve what I was seeing then it turned and I saw a shock of white fur. It was a skunk less then five feet away with its tail up. I jogged a couple of steps diagonally away from the skunk into the grass by the street. When I glanced back the skunk was hiding under a car.
Several weeks ago I saw a skunk in a bank parking lot but from a much larger distance. Tonight’s encounter was a lot closer than I ever wanted to come to a wild skunk.