St. Francis, Pets, Skunks, and Raccoons

Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis in early October makes me think of my skunks and raccoons. I miss my skunks and raccoons.

They weren't really mine, of course. They just shared the same space with my family. The skunks and the raccoons lived, in alternate years, under our garage. In the summer they played in the backyard. At night, they came up to the back porch to eat the food that I left for the outdoor cats.

When I found out that it wasn't just cats eating that food, I began leaving more out. And soon I spied the raccoons coming up the steps, five of them, sometimes more.

One night, I sat outside in a corner of that porch waiting for the animals to show up. At first, they came up slowly, eyeing me warily. Eventually they got used to my presence and ignored me as they ate. One evening, a mother skunk came around every evening with her four little babies. Her tail was spectacularly fluffy and I could not resist just touching it. She turned and stared at me, then turned back to eat. I never touched her again.

Everyone hates the raccoons, and especially the skunks. People chase them away, poison them, or run them over. But they were here first. We humans took over their land, and we have been unwilling to share it with them. We treat them as trespassers, but perhaps we are the trespassers. So I made my place a sanctuary for these beautiful creatures, where they were safe from cars and rifles and giant humans chasing them away.

When I moved from Spokane, I lost them. My new home is skunk-less and I miss them. The skunks are feisty reminders that God's creations are not always for our convenience. As we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis with a Pet Blessing on October 2, let us also remember that other creatures need our blessing and our protection also. In an age of rampant destruction of earth's resources, our fellow creatures are disappearing and we can't afford to lose them.  The world would be lonely without them.