Cute, as Long as There Was a Windshield Between Me and Them

Yesterday, I was driving into the village to pick up DD2 from her second session of driver's education (let's not even go into how old this makes me feel--my fourth and final 'baby' on her way to earning a driver's license) when up ahead in the road I saw small black critters.  And they were moving, so I knew I better slow down rather than just shift in the lane to straddle them with the Suburban as I drove.  (Straddling small dead critters in the road is second nature, no need to slow down, LOL.)

When I got closer, I could see it was a mother skunk and her two babies.  Now, say what you will about skunks, but they are cute.  Especially baby skunks.  Especially baby skunks who are dawdling in the road instead of quickly following mommy as she leads the way to safety on the other side.

Since it is a two lane, country road, and it was the middle of the day, there was no other traffic but me.  So I stopped.  Yep, came to a dead stop in the middle of the road.  Where I watched the babies play and mother skunk repeatedly walk a foot ahead only to turn around, go back to her babies wrestling on the tarmac, chastise them (she'd bump them with her head), then turn to face the direction she wanted them to go, and walk another foot ahead.  The babies would follow, for about six inches, before they were again distracted by jumping on each other, or sniffing the yellow line in the center of the road, or watching a bug fly by. . . and mother skunk would again have to halt forward progress, backtrack to her wayward offspring and try again.

I sat there, in the middle of the road, for a good two minutes before they crossed out of my lane and into the next.  While waiting, I decided (maybe foolishly) to roll down my window, stick my cell phone out, and attempt to get a picture of them.  The first picture didn't come out, as they were too far away.  So I slowly rolled the Suburban closer.    Meanwhile, the three skunks continued their journey to the other side, seemingly oblivious to me and the big black behemoth I drive.  I took another picture, as shown below.

Daily dose of cute administered, back to the task at hand.