Late one night, I heard a lot of noise in our garage and then I could smell the distinctive odor of a skunk. A skunk had somehow got in our garage and saw our black cat and evidently mistaken it for another skunk. As I jumped to my feet and headed out the door ( still half asleep),my wife handed me a spray can of deodorizer. I was now armed and ready! The next thing I know, I am chasing the skunk around our yard attempting to spray it with deodorizer! Then I became fully aware of my ridiculous course of action. The skunk left, the cat had escaped to a tree in our yard. It didn’t want anything to do with me either. I knocked on the door liked Fred Flintstone in the cartoons ” W-I-L-M-A (in my case L-I-N-D-A) …let me in!” … I couldn’t, because I now smelled like a skunk. I had to take an impromptu shower with the outside water hose first.
There are some experiences we encounter in life for which we are not prepared and feel very inadequate. Part of that isn’t necessarily our fault, we are just human and we live in an imperfect world with skunks, etc…How we respond is the key. I didn’t respond well that night, but it wasn’t due to lack of effort. Some times I think we are too hard on ourselves and others expecting everything and evybody to be perfect in our world all the time. I know one thing though for sure, I will not every go skunk hunting again…especially with a terrified cat and a can of deodorizer….