When things are not as they Appear
18 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Hot Tubbing Tags: animals, cats, fun, hot tub, moon, relax, seclusion, skunks, snow, winter
I decided to fire up the hot-tub one beautiful February evening at my house. The moon was full, making it look like my entire 6 acres had a spotlight shining down upon it. Temperature was just perfect for winter tubbing, at least for me. 25 degrees. No wind. Perfectly still outside. We had come through a couple of recent snow storms which left me having to shovel a small path TO the hot-tub in order to use it and then shovel it off. Nice fluffy snow made for easy shoveling.
My property is very secluded. I have only 2 neighbors, one of whom left at the end of summer after closing down their house for the winter, and my neighbor across the road I have only ever seen a handful of times while living up there. This being the case, I have never thought twice about clothing or lack-there-of when heading out to use my hot-tub which is located in the back of the house anyway. This evening was no different. I grabbed my phone and a towel, and headed out. The soothing heat and jets made for a great body massage while I relaxed in my winter wonderland.
I had been in the tub for nearly half an hour, eyes half shut, thinking about calling it a nite before I fell asleep and drowned when out of the corner of my eye I catch some movement coming up over a tiny hill about 10 feet away. I sat up, tried to focus on it, but it was dark, clouds moving in had started taking away a lot of the moonlight and I had left my glasses in the house. I knew it was a small animal, and it kept approaching. Must be the white stray cat that hangs around once in a while.
“Here kitty kitty”! It’s walking funny, just sort of ambling towards the tub, maybe 4 feet away by now. I called it once again, no meows, nothing, just walking towards me. As it got closer and my blind eyes focused as hard as they could on it, I spy a black mark. I’ve never noticed any black on this white stray before.
Oh shit….it’s not just a black mark, it’s a stripe. SKUNK!!!
Now what?? Crap! Do I sit here and wait to see what it does? Will it notice me and immediately do the ‘skunk thing’? I wasn’t going to wait for THAT so I threw myself out over the end of the tub into the pile of snow, yes, there was no path shoveled around that end of the tub to the other side of the house but who needs a path? I made my own, stark naked in the dark clear around to the front door of the house which I almost always lock as soon as I enter. Maybe I didn’t lock it this time. I mean, it CAN’T be locked because I can’t stand out here in below freezing weather with nothing on but icicles! I’ve never prayed so hard in those few seconds as I ran around the end of the house, up and over the huge pile of snow left from shoveling the walkway, and up the steps to the front door. PLEASE open! And it did. Why I didn’t lock the door behind me that night, I don’t know, but I was ridiculously happy and very grateful that I hadn’t. I don’t know where the skunk went, but my towel and phone stayed outside the rest of the night to be retrieved the next day.
And that, my friends, is hot-tubbing in the country!
