Thunder, lightning, and a good rain finished off a busy July weekend in Santa Fe.  By the time Dave and I went out to make a quick run to the post office it was dark and wet and quiet, no sign of the gibbous moon.

Dave spotted the slow moving ball of black and white fur before I did.  In the headlights it first appeared to be one creature.  He slowed to make sure it didn’t spook and run in front of the car.  Then we saw it was really two, three, four small skunks.  A family, he said.  A double date, I replied.

The group kept a wary eye on us and moved slowly, all bunched together, up the street.  I didn’t even consider rolling down my window to take a photo.  Cute as they were, I didn’t want to alarm them.

Finally, they found an opening in the wall and scurried into some unsuspecting resident’s yard.  It was then that we realized there were five.  Dave was probably right: a mother and her kits.