Deets and I are out after dark, rustling in the dry grasses and sniffing out bugs. before we come across an animal that piques Deets’ curiosity, she pauses with a deeply low, questioningly sweet moan. I use my headlamp to do a quick scan and come up empty. we crunch in an amble around our backyard. I’ve not entirely let my guard down when Deets puts on what I like to call her “friend face”. her manner when approaching a fellow creature with wonder rather than hunger is in her face, but her body does all of the talking. thinking it could be her “Friendcat” I let Deets creep ahead as I again click on the headlamp. now I’m confused because my cat has crept close enough to startle this thing given that I cannot find it even with a high-beam. it’s just beyond the deep grass Deets has already started to sneak into. Friendcat has a fluffy tail but I know it to be dark; I am seeing fluffy white swishing. upon next recognizing black my whole body reacts in understanding: we are—Deets mere inches, and I only feet—looking at a skunk. I gave Deets a sharp hiss to get out followed by a jolt of a tug on her leash. she gracefully high-tailed it as I tried not to move too sudden. as soon as we’d reached safety I remembered the day maybe a week ago when the outside stunk so bad I thought it would stick to my clothes. I burned so much incense that day. anywayyy new friend! rack em up.