A Skunk is Still a Skunk!

This past week I have been involved in our school district's Nature Venture program for 6th grade students. This year I was the chairman for the event. This meant a lot of pre -planning in order to get over 800 gifted sixth graders to a nature park in the middle of San Antonio, Tx. We set up 29 different events at this site. Little did I know that I would be on 'skunk' patrol.
Now skunks are beautiful animals but are often, as most people know, a little annoying, but often misunderstood. They not only can shower you with long lasting odors, but also can carry life threatening diseases. Now when you get a report of a skunk near 400 students you move fast. This old body does not move too fast these days, unless it is on a bike. My partner, Anita, radioed me that there was a skunk near one of our activities so I 'quickly' moved to that area. She kept me in contact with the skunk as it moved from one area to another. The other facilitators that were listening to us on our walkie talkies must have busted a gut laughing at us as we kept giving updates about this tiny little critter who was making me walk all over the place. I kept the little guy in view as he circled activity after activity. I also told everyone I came in contact with to leave it be so they would not be wearing the skunk home, if you get my drift. Nature Venture is one thing but interacting too directly in nature is another. We were messing up this poor little guy's habitat considerably, as if the torrential rains of the previous days had not already done so. I watched( and smelled) the skunk disappear into the woods and I was satisfied he was not going to bother us any more.
This is not the end of the skunk's tale. Later that day in another area of the park I was driving my car with two of my colleagues in it when Ms. Skunk appeaared
on the road trying to get a drink from the water5 running across the road. The ladies I was with were pleading with me to stop and turn around s o they wouldn't feel the wrath of the critter but being myself, a risk taker, I slowly eased the car down towards the skunk to get a closer look. The skunk just ambled off in the tall grass near the pond. Later the next day another coworker saw Ms.Skunk walking towards a wooden bridge with food in its mouth to feed it's young who were hiding there. The skunk did not bother us if we left it alone. I guess the moral of this is that if we all learned to recognize each other's differences, whether it be race or religion, like the skunk who learned to not let 400 children bother it, we too could coexist in this world with others who seem different.
By the way there are no skunks in Italy.