I try to do a walk around the yard every evening, while there’s still light enough to see, and just check on things.  The inside cats tend to different windows as I do.  The mama cat likes to sit in windows and meow at me, while DahBoy likes to sit quietly and just look at the other cats.

Last night, I got to see this. :-D

Doom Guy, checking out DahBoy.  He hung out there and played at the bottom of the door for a while, but wouldn’t let me do much more than touch him, while I was sitting on the concrete and he went under my legs.

Tonight, I was away for much of the day, meeting with my older brother and his wife in the town where my mom is in the hospital, driving to the airport to see our relative off as he returns to Poland, then going to see my mom at the hospital.  She was asleep, so we let her be.  She is healing well and, if they can get home care worked out, we expect her to be going home on Monday.

So it was pretty late before I got home.  After supper, I took a walk around the yard again.  Butterscotch came out and started following me, trying to rub against my legs as I walked, so of course she got kicked in the head a couple of times.  :-/

It looks like the kittens have been sheltering in where the old wood pile used to be, and where Butterscotch took her kittens for a while.  As I came around the house, I could see some kittens by the old dog house there.  Doom Guy, the tuxedo, was barely visible in the half light.  Much to my delight, he came right up to me, and not only accepted pets, but seemed to want to be picked up.  So I did, and he started to purr and enjoy being petted.  He was even okay with me continuing to walk with him in my arms!

I was so thrilled!

Eventually, I let him down near the food bowls, then sat in the chair by the sun room.  The other kittens had come out and were running around, climbing the arm rail by my mother’s white rose bush, and generally being very entertaining.  I took lots of photos, but the light was just too low for any of them to turn out.  I hoped some of the other cats would maybe come by, so I just stayed in the chair with my phone handy.  Only the tuxedo would come up to me, but not for pets.  He tried to climb up my leg a couple of times, and another, jumped up can clawed my butt through the back of the chair!  I’m glad he’s more comfortable around me, but I didn’t expect it to be so painful! :-D

Then I heard a noise and looked over to see…

… that’s…

… not a cat.

Nope.  It was a skunk, ambling towards me as if I wasn’t even there!

Doom Guy started hissing at it, and the skunk stopped and lifted its tail.  There I sat, trying to take pictures (they didn’t really turn out), thinking, “I’m about to get sprayed…” over and over!

The skunk, of course, won the battle of wills, the kittens all ran off, and the skunk continued to amble over to the food bowls.

As soon as it started eating, it was a confirmation for me.  Many a night, I’d hear a strange crunching sound outside my office window.  It was not the same noise the cats make when they eat, but any time I looked, I could see nothing.  I thought it might be a skunk, and now I know for sure.

It’s so cute!

Which means that those shallow holes I’m finding in the yard, that I thought might be a skunk digging for grubs, were probably made by this little guy.

I’ve read that skunks can be very friendly, make good pets, and are very cat like.  We’re not about to make a pet out of this one, but I certainly don’t mind it being around.

As long as the cats don’t bother it and cause it to spray! :-D

The Re-Farmer