Scardey Cat at Heart

This weekend my husband and I were working out in the yard. Well, actually I was sitting on the porch putting my shoes on when he motioned for me to look up. A squirrel was positioned half way down a tree out front, watching us with interest. I chuckled and continued tying my shoes. I looked up and saw that he was headed up the sidewalk right at me. With a determined look on his face he jumped and landed on the landing to my side  (inches from me!) and scurried up the side of the house. He scared me to death! For a split second it looked (and felt) like he was going to take me smooth down and from the laughter coming from my husband, he thought so too. Later that night the dogs were in a complete uproar about something. First of all, although they may think they are big bad dogs, they are really terrified of the dark. Even though we live in the middle of town, we have a lot of cridders that come out at night. When I called the dogs in, my mastiff came immediately. She tucked her tail when she came in as if to say... "It wasn't me that started it." She had no desire to be out there with the cridders. My bulldog on the other hand, had something cornered under the cedar trees and would not back down. Finally I grabbed my shoes and flashlight to see if I could find out what all the commotion was. We have a... well we call it a moat, but it's really an old rock drainage culvert that runs beside our

house (moat sounds more intriguing). The cridders use the moat as a pathway to the creek that runs down the highway. It's really a pretty cool place, and kids have been playing in for years. The big cedar trees that line our back yard form a canopy over it making it a mysterious place to play. I fumbled my way through the trees to the edge of the moat and what to my wondering eyes did appear??? I huge skunk! Had it been on the same level as us, we would have been toe to toe.

I quickly stepped back and pleaded for Riley to come with me. No such luck. You've heard of a dog with a bone, try a bulldog with a skunk. I ran in the house, grabbed the leash and my husband (who really sees no urgency in anything). I personally did not want to walk up to the fence to get the leash on her, so we pleaded some more. Finally she ran over to us long enough for me to lasso her with the leash. When we got in the house she collapsed in a heap under the table. I told her, although I'm not sure she understood, that she may have feel like a big bad bulldog with a fence between her and the skunk, but had the skunk not been certain she couldn't get to him, she wouldn't have thought she was so tough. I've been guilty of thinking I'm more of a force to be reckoned with than I am. I tend to tuck my tail under when life throws me something that goes bump in the night...or when, let's say a rabid squirrel tries to take me down.  I try to put up a good front like Riley did with the skunk but most of the time I'm just a big scardey cat at heart.