Success! I was very pleased with the tactical outcome - we both were able to satisy ourselves without any harm. And I was even happier because I knew there would be a good image or two out of the encounter.

I am also very glad that the timing meant I could get prints of Pepé to display in our house for my wife Margaret to enjoy. She was terminally ill with cancer. They gave her a smile during her last days.

Pepids generally travel near my home from around the unoccupied house south across our street. Scooting across the road, they dart around the side of the porch, weave back to the bushes along the sides of the property before ascending the hill behind (north) of the house. Pepid's Progress....

Pepé up close and personal: I ran out and cut off this skunk just alongside the porch. Just a few feet away, trapped we were in a little corridor of plants and planking. Fortunately, once more the encounter was friendly.

Earlier this year (2004), a most remarkable creature appeared. A skunk without a stripe. (Is this really Cherie from Chuck Jones? Wow!)  I used flash to grab this shot in late twilight. She (the skunk) was moving fast, thwarted in escape by spray from my garden sprinklers. I aimed blind over the railing on the porch, panned on the predicted motion of her, but it worked out beautifully. The pan and flash stopped her and illuminated her wet fur, but the blur of motion in the rest of the duration of exposure (with a digital camera) is discernible.

Skunks were more common in our neighborhood last year than this year. I think that's because the coyote has come back to the Palos Verdes Peninsula during this time. They have been sighted in my subdivision; I have seen their droppings on trails around the peninsula.  Much as I like the antics of the black and whites, this is all well and good. This is the natural control needed for balancing the numbers of skunks, raccoons, possums, loose-roaming cats and dogs to give native species of birds, lizards and insects a chance to recover. I learned recently that there is a link between a Southern California fence lizard, Lyme's Disease, feral cats and coyotes that can be to our benefit if our wild canid friends are allowed to do their thing. Besides, maybe I can see and photograph Wile E. himself outside my house one day!