This past evening, I was walking toward my car and spotted a poor little creature walking around through the piles of snow. My initial reaction was compassion toward what I thought was a stray cat left out in the freezing weather.

I crossed the street, slowly walking closer to the little furry animal.

In the darkness of night, only a couple feet away from the creature, I realized it was a skunk! Slowly, I walked backwards and found my way to my car.

I had a reverse Pepé Le Pew moment when what I thought was a cat turned out to actually be a skunk. I still felt bad for the little thing (although I’m glad I did not have to get rid of skunk stench).

Apparently, it isn’t so uncommon to have friendly neighborhood skunks in the Boston area.

Of course, it could have just been a cat who walked under some wet paint…