- The Reckoning

I know it's been a bit since I last posted. I had to go covert. You know, study them as they spied on me. I've seen that small squirrel a few times since my last post. Once even, while walking to work. It ran across the street not 20 feet from me. Suspicious, maybe, but I'm still here, so no traps where laid (or set off at least). But the last few days have been quite pleasant. Sunny, or only partly cloudy, and above freezing temps. Today though, for the first time in a few weeks, I saw two squirrels frolicking. It made me somewhat happy, to know that they are getting back to business, and ignoring me.

However, you may be wondering why there's now a skunk in the logo and a new title. Well, aside from the fact that I have a bad habit of illustrating points with pictures (hey, it's the italian in me), the other night (saturday, the 14th, valentines day to be exact), I was packing up store merchandise to take to a convention the next day. At 11:30pm at night, I see something outside the double window of the store. It was kind of fluffy, and mostly white, and it wasn't a cat. It was a skunk, foraging. It had a mostly white coat, so I knew it was in it's "winter duds", otherwise I'd probably have thought it even wierder to see the skunk out in the middle of winter than the squirrels. Still, I thought skunks were more prone to hibernating than squirrels. On top of that, last week my friends dog had a possum dead ended in the back yard (luckily the dog is a big ole coward, or the possum might have been in actual trouble. The dog is a 100+ pound Golden Retriever).

In light of those two revelations, I'm inclined to point back to the post that started all this. Why are these small mammals not hibernating (despite the title, I am aware that skunks are not actually rodents)? I have done a little research, and found that skunks will hibernate when the weather conditions are severe. Somehow weeks worth of sub zero temps and 2-3 feet of snow and ice on the ground aren't severe enough?

Still, maybe it's just time for me to get back to my usually exciting and telltale life, and let sleeping squirrels lie. Or forage. Or frolick, or whatever they deem worthy enough to confuse me in these cold winter months...