Homeward Bound

Saturday, October 20, 2007 (Didn't get to post this 'til today due to technical difficulties...)

Meeting Ted in Santa Fe for a few days was brilliant! We are having such a good time, reconnecting and sharing our experiences of the last 3 weeks. Turns out that this little journey of mine was an important experience for each of us, and has only enhanced what we share together as a couple. I am so pleased that this time of renewal has expanded the joy, respect, support, deep love, and appreciation that we bring to our relationship.

As I have noted over recent weeks, I have been marveling at and enjoying greatly all of the rich wildlife encounters that have come my way. Well, I have decided that not all visits from nature’s creatures do I appreciate equally. Let me tell you what happened on my last night in the cabin!

About an hour after I fell asleep I was awakened by some noises. I had seen evidence of mice out in the kitchen, but this wasn’t mice noises. It had to be coming from something quite a bit larger...

I could hear something scratching around, either under my bed, or beneath the floor boards under my bed. Very creepy! After a few minutes of lying in wide eyed terror (I had been sound asleep after all), I decided to turn on the light and see if I could tell what was going on. Well, there was this 2 foot square grated air vent, containing heater ductwork, just beyond the foot of my bed, and when I looked in that direction there was a pair of eyes staring back at me. I couldn’t tell at first what sort of critter was staring me down, because I was too freaked out that it had actually crawled in through the heating ducts and was in the cabin with me!

I think I just pulled the covers over my head and tried to imagine what my next move should be. I considered going out and sleeping in the van, but there were a couple of inches of snow out there, and the winds were still howling down the canyon. I thought about running out of the room and going up into the loft, but I wasn’t certain that I wouldn’t be followed, and the mattress in the loft was on the floor, so no box spring height to distance me from whatever creepy crawlies might be lurking…

Slowly, I dared to look more closely at the grate, where the critter was crawling around inside, and saw the colors of black and white. I had seen a distinctly black and white, good sized bird often in my travels over the prior 2 weeks, and initially thought one of them had found their way into the heating ducts. Well, we all know how I feel about having birds too near me. Back my head went under the covers!

I thought some more, and realized it couldn’t be a bird due to the length of floor space from the floor heating vent(where I first heard the noises) to the air vent grate being too long for a bird to traverse. I tried to quell my fears long enough to attempt to get another good look, and realized that it was black and white, and had a fluffy tail. SKUNK!!! Now what? I really couldn’t do anything to try to scare him away without risking getting sprayed. That would have been delightful to deal with, I’m sure!

So I slept with the light on, as that seemed to quiet it down. I was hoping skunks are nocturnal and the light would bum it out enough to seek shelter elsewhere. I kept myself buried in the bedcovers all night, frightened that I could be sprayed at any moment. In and out my acquaintance went periodically through the night, scratch, scratch, scratch… I drifted in and out of sleep, mostly out though…

The drive that day to Santa Fe is a sleep deprived blur, but at least I didn’t have to bathe in tomato juice before I left! Moral of the story; in certain circumstances, not all God’s creatures please and delight. Live and learn…