#skunks

[animentality]

[dearmouse]

Vintage Skunk Figurine

[qsfocus]

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[bug2go]

[commission] 1hour commission for client via Twitter

[antiqueanimals]

Animal Vision. Written and illustrated by George Frederick Mason. 1968.

[shiftythrifting]

various intriguing items spotted at the northwest’s largest garage sale

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[kness]

A spicy squirrel 🐿️

Prints

[creepymutelilbugger]

grenade

[butterflycharms]

𝒍𝒊𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔 🦨༄

[benilos]

Skunks

A skunk had died on the road in front of my house when I was 15, it had been run over.

It was there for 2 or so weeks, and I saw it every day going to and from the bus stop.

Every day, it was less and less of what it used to be.

A tiny ball of black fur that you could smell a street away. The spray making you call out "Oh a skunk died!" As you drove by.

2 weeks.

And I saw it every day.

I saw the worms that formed in its belly.

Saw the vulture that picked from it.

Its bones were tiny, much smaller than ours. Of course, it was a skunk. A rodent. A creature so insignificant to us, even a nuisance to some, that we know its demise by smell and all we do is cheerfully declare its death and scrunch our nose in disgust just after.

Is that what I am?

Is that what they thought of me when I disappeared?

Did they hear of my attempt, and turn their nose up in disgust?

Did they cheerfully declare my death, and sigh in disappointment when I was confirmed to be alive still?

Were you happy when you no longer saw my face?

Could you see my bones as the time passed? Did you feel my absence? Did you see the worms that grew in my belly next to the Clonidine and water?

Did you know you were the vulture?

Or is all you remember the tiny stain of pink that was all that remained of my memory?

Do you shudder at my smell, at the faint remembrances of when I was around, causing you so much trouble that you had to bite at my throat and tear the sinew apart?

Am I bones or am I alive to you?

I am a skunk, not a rabbit. Not a wolf. I am a skunk. A creature to be declared a triumphant kill and to poked at with the stick long after my skin and fur has rotted.

I am the thing that you would know blind, in silence. And that you only hope goes away.

In the summer sun I am the odor that lingers for the memory of a desperate little rodent just trying to make it to other side.

I cannot be anything more.

I quite like skunks. They're just trying to live too.

[the-merry-gnome]

I mean…I have a healthy respect for the these little critters.

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Mammals

Caniformia. This suborder of Carnivora contains dogs, foxes, bears, otters, badgers, raccoons, skunks, seals, and walruses.

Whippomorpha. This suborder of even-toed ungulates have for the most part lost their toes, becoming dolphins and whales. It also includes hippos.

[dearmouse]

Ceramic Skunk Family

[antiqueanimals]

Along Four-Footed Trails; Wild Animals of the Plains as I Knew Them. Written by Ruth A. Cook, with illustrations by Mabel Williamson. 1903.

Internet Archive