Because it is my birthday this week (second time this year) I rerun this little story.
Most people give cards or flowers for someone's birthday, but for my 28th birthday, my sister gave me two baby skunks. The Mom had been hit by a car and we got them 2 days after their eyes opened. Skunk are the most amazing and wonderful creatures. They are inquisitive, silly, playful and very naughty. Every 3 hours, around the clock I hand fed them formula and the rest of the time they lived in a box in my apartment. They grew quickly and would come out and romp with me on the kitchen floor. They would romp around and stomp their feet at me, then they would whip into a handstand, pointing their butts at me like....don't make me use this!! They would snuggle under your chin and munch your hair. I loved them very much!
Now my sister Anita, who gave me the skunks, actually shared them with me. When she wasn't working, they were with her, and when I wasn't, they were with me. My other sister Michele lived with me at this point and one day her and I were taking a nap when the most evil smell ever woke us out of a dead sleep. Seems her cat had been napping and woke up at the same time the skunks had. He hadn't seen the skunks yet as we kept them separate. They were in a box that had one hole in it about a big as a curious cats paw. The cat went investigating with that paw inside the box and the skunks let him have it. When I opened my bedroom door that cat had a look that said...."oh for the love of God!!" and he dove under my bed. I ran to my skunks and they too had that look. They didn't like the smell any more then the cat did. They leaping into my arms and hid under the table. I quickly ran the box down to the dumpsters and felt mighty bad for the folks who lived by them, I will tell you that.
After several hours, my apartment was back to normal. Thank God only the box took the hit, neither the cat nor the skunks had any on them. I am happy to report that from then to this very day, that cat has never messed with another box and takes great pains to avoid them at all cost.
Now it is important here to explain that while my sister lived with me, she slept in my bed. Why not? I have a queen bed. If she slept with me, my children wouldn't have to be misplaced. We could then stay up and talk just like when we were little girls. To us it seemed perfectly natural. One night I was coming to bed and I wanted to hear the number one country song first. My sister Michele HATES country music. When it was over, I climbed into bed and twisted wrong and got a cramp. Right in my Glute. I yelled "OH!! I twanged my Glute!" So my sister started laughing and said...my Lord this makes a perfect country song. And she burst into a very terrible homemade country song about the skunks in the bathroom and the cat under the bed and me getting a cramp in my butt cheek as I climbed into bed with my sister. We made several jokes about how southern we were at that very moment.
Well the next day my sister was at work- She worked for the state sewer department -and was relaying this story to her co workers at break. So she gets to the part about me climbing into bed and twanging my glute and everyone burst up laughing, then they all stop at once as if they had a collective thought and said....."wait, you sleep with your sister?"
The skunks have grown and moved into the wilderness now. They escaped from their pen in the middle of the night about a week before my sister Anita and I would have released them back into the wild. They lived under her house for a while and the paperboy would tell her about them "chasing him" every morning. We just laughed over this. They have not been seen for along time. But every now and then I will get a distant whiff of skunk and my heart feels with warmth and love and I think about My babies Fancy and Peanut. Secretly I want another.....
