What Was That, part 2

Continued from yesterday...

I carefully unzipped the flap and peeked out of our sleeping area to see a fully grown skunk rummaging through the stuff in the outer room of our tent. As it rubbed against the thin, nylon wall that separated us, I stood with the axe at the ready position. Now I was afraid to scare or intimidate the little animal, knowing what it was capable of. On the other hand, if it was aggressive enough to come this far, I wasn't sure what it might do next.

Fully awake, I waited as it turned over gear and tried to get into anything that smelled interesting. It seemed to take forever! Finally, convinced that nothing was worth further investigation, it sauntered out. When the rest of the family awoke the next morning, none of them was aware we had a problem.

That night, however, we all had a skunk experience. A heavy thunderstorm drove us into the cooking tent for dinner. We had little room to sit, so most of us stood around, eating our food and listening to the rain as it pelted down. Suddenly, a skunk was nosing around just outside! We grew quiet and still, sure that it wouldn't enter our lantern-lit room.

Wrong!

Impervious to our presence, that stinkin' thing walked right inside the tent with about ten of us standing there. It wandered around as we waited, stock still, scared that we might upset it. Finally, it left, moseyed around the rest of our campsite and departed into the night.

I have no idea if we caught any fish that trip. I remember little of our conversations and I don't know what we ate. I just remember skunks.

I was never so glad to head back to "civilization."