Running Scared

Philip and I recently began running on a regular basis in order to get in better shape. This has been somewhat successful so far, though I find running in the mornings before I have my cup 'o joe not be very effective. Therefore, we have taken to running in the evenings. Last night, we were making our way down the Greenway into Nathaniel Greene Park. As we were trucking along, I heard Philip say, "Hey kitty kitty...oh, I think that's a skunk!" Sure enough, there were not one but three skunks sitting along the fence row.

We stopped jogging, and slowly started making our way toward the skunks, while trying to stay as far away from them as possible. As we inched closer, they started dancing around. Philip laughed and said, "I think they are fighting." Then, they turned around and stuck their tails in the air in our direction. I froze and prayed that I would not be taking a bath in tomato juice that night. As we stood there debating whether or not it would be worth it to make our way past the skunks and into the park, we saw someone coming toward us on a bicycle. I thought, We should warn that man about the skunks, but I was also afraid that the skunks would spray if I yelled. So we waited. The older gentleman on the bike coasted past and looked at us as though we were crazy. To be fair, we were staring intently at him to see if he would get attacked. Instead, the skunks slid back under the fence and hid from view.

Philip and I jogged safely along and laughed. Then he turned to me and said, "I didn't want to say anything because I kinda wanted to see if he would get sprayed!" Of course I replied, "Me too!"