Earlier this evening Sparky made a new friend. And earned her country-dog stripes at the same time... because her new friend has stripes of the black-and-white kind.

Of course Sparky has to return from her adventure just as a rain storm arrived. So Shelley's outside washing the dog while I hold a large umbrella over us and Kelley clings to my leg, after dumping out the leftover tomato juice from dinner.

Which leaves us with a mostly stinky dog and no more tomato juice. So I have to run to the store eight miles away just as the storm really heats up and lets loose with thunder and lightning.

And on the way to the store, a little ways from the house, I come around a corner and find a mother skunk and the cutest little baby skunk you ever saw in the middle of the road.

I pull over and wait for my camera phone to warm up and while I do that the mommy skunk scurries across and baby wanders around in the middle for a while.

The phone finally readies just as the mom returns and grabs baby by the scruff of the neck and carries it back to the other side of the road, in the downpour.

I proceed to the store, buy three large cans of tomato juice, then come back. Shelley finishes washing Sparky indoors in the tub while I comfort Kelley who's not liking the incoming storms.

Which will hit us momentarily in all its fury.



It was a dark and stormy night. In the distance a dog got sprayed by a skunk.

Ah, the joys of country life.