Hunting with Mike

When I was a kid of about 13 years old I was sprayed by an angry skunk. The oil from her most potent defense mechanism hit me in the back as I turned to run away. I was a long ways from home and started to run for my life. The smell was so awful I started throwing cloths off while I was running. By the time I reached our back porch I was down to my underwear. My mother “bless her heart” had heard me screaming and was waiting for me at the back door. She wouldn’t let me in the house because I stunk so bad, and ordered me to remove my underwear also. At that point I had no pride what-so-ever and did just as she said. While I stood there, naked as a jay-bird, she was dumping all the tomato juice she could find into the tub. It’s an old remedy, but it works! I soaked in that tomato bath for several hours before it was safe to step back into the world of the “living.” After I put on a clean set of cloths; I traced my steps (or should I say traced my stinky cloths) back to the point of “contact.” Upon my mothers orders I poured a little gasoline on the pile of cloths and set them on fire.

Well yesterday this scene came flooding back to me as I stood face to face with yet another skunk! It was very early in the morning; around 5:45 A.M. I was checking my hunting spot in Hillsdale to see if I could find where the turkeys are roosting. While walking back to the woods, I didn’t want to use my flashlite, so I stayed on a path that went through a clover field. I could barely see ahead of me, but thought something was walking on the path just a few feet away. It forced me to turn my flashlite on for a minute, and there to my shocked surprise was Mr. Skunk. As the scene from my past went through my mind my feet did the smartest thing they have ever done in their lives-they ran like the wind!!! Well maybe not that fast, but for an old guy they did me proud. I gave the skunk a wide berth as he proceeded down “his” trail. I have to remember I am a guest as I meander through the great outdoors that these animals live in. I was so happy that I wasn’t “skunked again” yesterday that I went on to have a most enjoyable morning. No ruined cloths, no birthday suit, and no tomato bath “ahhh!”

Mike

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 5:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.