You just never know who you'll end up chatting with at a dinner to honour family doctors. That's where we were last night. It's about the safest dinner in the world I've ever attended. For once in my life, I was suffering from a richness of doctors! Imagine! About 70 of them for 350 'patients', also known as dinner guests. What a feeling! Choking on a chicken bone? No probbie...poke the guy next to you, he'll fix it. Cut off your tail with the carving knife? Surgeon's next table over, two seats down! It was wonderful! And wouldn't you just know it? Not one Doctor got called!!!So in that sense, we all got skunked.(Slang Dictionary : verb, as in,no points and nothin' happening you want to remember).
However, the woman I sat next to used to take in orphaned,abandoned,sick, and wounded wild animals. Having been to her home once, years ago, we reminisced about the raccoons
that roamed the dining room that evening, searching for treats...Rocky and his pal Mustave. She said that she no longer took animals in, as they'd moved from the country to town, but one of her fondest memories was taking care of baby skunks (North American striped variety).Note to readers! I sat next to a woman at a doctor dinner who said, " You scoop the skunk up by the scruff of the neck, stick his tail between his legs, and give it a baby bottle.Would you please pass the pickles?"
For your sake (and mine) gentle reader, I demanded clarification! A skunk will not release his disgustingly odoriferous, makes me want to puke, scent if he/she can't get the tail up above the back. So! Note to skunk skulkers, tail goes down.
Former wild animal rescue girl, now real estate agent, also said that skunks can't actually see very well - mostly shades of black and white and shadow - which is why they also are sometimes seen snuffling along the edges of things. Living things like cats or dogs, who then jump and bark or meow in dismay as a mega spritz of skunk juice hits them between the eyes. And then they (STINKY cat or dog) let their slaves (you or me) bathe them in tomato juice and club soda for the next several weeks.
Score at this point? Skunk - 1, Cat/Dog/Human - 0 (aka skunked).
