The other cat (SKUNK) - Wine review Red Cat

While we're on the topic of cats, it brings me to another recent mammalian encounter with what I first thought was a pair of cats, then soon realized was a pair of SKUNKS!  I will paint the picture:


Beautiful purple dusk evening with thin blue smoky clouds.  The sun has set but it's still light enough out to take a walk.  It rained earlier in the afternoon and evening with passing storms.  The road and grass are damp but not wet.  The asphalt on the street is dark as if wet but no water is pooled.  The street is dry to the touch of the rubber soles of one's shoes. 

Turning the corner, my walking companions and I notice a house with its garage door open.  The home sits atop a knoll with a medium length driveway, cars parked inside the garage and glimmers of lamps behind curtains giving signs that this house is well loved by its family.   Tomorrow is trash day, so this house as with many others on the street have already wheeled trash and recylables to the curb. 

Next my eyes bulged out of my head.  Ambling up the driveway and into the garage were two dark figures.  Dogs?  No, they looked like beavers from the size of them and the fringe of the fur.  Opossum?  No, too big for opossum.  More like a newborn bear, 60 pounds at least on the bigger one and no less than forty on the smaller one.  No, it's not bears.  What, then?  Cats?  No, the tails were not catlike.  One of the shadowy figures was significantly larger than the other, as if to suggest parent and child.  Then I saw them:  The white stripes running down the backs of each animal.  These were skunks!  A mother skunk and her baby, I'd say.  Shocked by the size of them, I stopped in my tracks without realizing it.  As they approached the car, the mother motioned to the baby to keep up with her!  Stop lollygagging.  The baby did a funny hop and skip to reach her side.  They maneuvered themselves sideways into the garage between the car and the garage divider.  The house with the nice family inside had skunks coming to visit!

The skunks did not find any food because they soon turned around, with a disgusted look on the mom's face, and a frustrated gait that said, "Did I just walk up this hard bumpy knoll for THIS?"  I caught my breath and moved on with my companions, keeping to the other side of the road.   As the skunks made their way to the next food opportunity I thanked my stars for the sealed garage at home.  Then turned over my shoulder to see them again but they were gone into the tall grass now.  I could see it sway and hear it gently rustling.  

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Red Cat wine by Hazlitt Vineyards is just the slightest bit spicy and unexpected, just like having a pair of skunks appear in the driveway instead of just one.  And, like the skunks travel in a pair, Red Cat wine partners with White Cat for a perfect pool party serving suggestion.  The Red Cat tastes like someone dissolved a red hot candy into the wine and diluted it.  Punchy!  The White Cat is more sweetly juicy for a contrast.  See last post for purchasing information!


Make a kid's skunk costume for Halloween - Courtesy BHG.com

  

The Skunk antidote:  Homemade Tomato (V8) Juice - Courtesy Simplyrecipes.com