“Lessons From Nature,” senryu

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

Sarah selected the theme of “Lessons from Nature” for this week’s #TankaTuesday theme prompt.

The other morning, as I stood by the back door drinking coffee… I spied an animal I’ve never encountered before. Hey! I’m a city girl. What can I say? My neighbors have dogs, so I sent out an alert in our homeowner’s FB group.

The bad thing is, the skunk crawled under the concrete pad of the larger utilities in the last photo. Now what? The smell seeped into our house at night! PURE STINK!

I’ve written a senryu to share a bit of humor with you… if having a skunk living in your backyard is humorous! 🤦🏼‍♀️

black and white feline...
mistaken identity
follow the odor

© Colleen M. Chesebro

P.S. My neighbor brushed her dog and placed the hair at the opening under the utility pad. We haven’t seen the skunk since!

50 thoughts on ““Lessons From Nature,” senryu”

      1. I’m more curious now for deeper detail on the smell. people say they stink, but is there something that smell can be compared to?

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  11. Your comment at being a city girl struck me as funny. In that I find it stranger to encounter skunks in the woods or away from towns. They are an animal that has adapted to urban and suburban life with its ample trash and lawns that may have grubs in them to feed on. If you see scratchings in the lawn, you still have a nocturnal neighbor. I wouldn’t be surprised if the yellow pages offer a pest removal team. Believe it or not, a blanket over the live catch trap will keep them from spraying.

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    1. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a skunk! My husband said the same thing. We’ve lived out west for years and never saw these pesky critters. It’s expensive to have them removed. My neighbor added some mothballs to the hole, and we’ve not seen him since. Fingers crossed. 💜

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        1. Our HOA doesn’t allow outside trash cans. We have woods all around us. We’ve seen deer in the winter, so I’m sure there are all kinds of animals around. I didn’t know skunks ate meat. All the chimpmunks disappeared too. I guess skunks have to eat too! 😀

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  13. They are wonderful animals–from a distance! 🤣 My husband got sprayed by one in our backyard last year. We could not get the smell out of his clothes, and he finally threw them out!

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      1. We’ve always kept our cats inside, too. You’ve seen from my photos that we have lots of creatures around here, too–and I know there are many more I haven’t seen, like foxes.

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  15. My neighbors who feed the stray cats have had skunks in their yards, but I only have bird feeders!
    No skunks yet, but I’ve got other critters including wild turkey, deer, fox, gopher, voles, bats…
    🙂

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