Love to watch 'em, tho from a distance

Just took the dog for a walk, and lo' as I rounded the corner for home on Hemlock Street, there was a skunk, rooting for bugs? earthworms? spiders? all of the above in a neighbor's yard.

I happen to like skunks alot, and I think I saw this one running across the same street last night, but it was too dark and too far away to tell for sure.

I quickly Googled and came up with this Web site that gave me a run down. They are nocturnal, gentle, will only spray if defending their young or threatened, and only as a last resort. This one ignored me until I stamped my feet, and off it went, under a rhodie bush.

I found out that they eat rats, and 70 percent of their diet consists of animals or bugs considered harmful to gardens or humans. So, there you go. This might be the culprit digging under my husband's greenhouse. So I suggested pepper or moth balls as a non-lethal way of telling this particular skunk to den elsewhere.