[misc, MA] Here, kittykittykit--

[siderea]

Okay, so, there I was, walking to the T on the way home from work. I pass by an abandoned lot, where there've been a lot of sightings of feral kittens. I met a guy there once who was leaving food out for them. Sure enough, on a small flight of steps at the back of the lot, there are a bunch of five to seven rather-bigger-than-kittens-now cats.

Comments

[lupagreenwolf]

From my understanding, skunks have somewhat feline personalities, and cats have been known to nurse other species' young if the timing is right, so it totally wouldn't surprise me if the kit was adopted by a momcat somewhere along the line.

[kelkyag]

Sounds quite plausible to me. Skunks are laid-back creatures -- I think they're confident that nearly everything knows better than to mess with them -- and apparently fairly sociable. I'm given to understand that they can be raised as housepets (even without being descented). Certainly I've been quite close to them often enough on late-night walks in the city without getting more than a curious look from them, though I try not to startle them. Cats, meanwhile, have an entirely learned notion of which critters are friends, foes, or food. If there was a skunk around while they were young, and no unfriendly incidents, I would expect them to be indifferent to friendly towards it.

Ferrets, which are not too distantly related to skunks, get along quite well with cats, especially if they've been raised together.

[heron61]

Heh, I'm reminded of an incident from when I lived in LA. I was walking home from a store, and saw a cat walking ahead of me, it was black and white with a large fluffy tail and an oddly sloping head. It stopped for a moment, I got closer, it turned around and started stamping its front feet and raising its tail. I backed away slowly - I had never seen a skunk in person before.

[mellyjc]

Eeep.

I ended up chasing one the other day on a run. Fortunately it had the sense to run instead of turn around to 'fight' like that.

[cvirtue]

If you want to relive the experience, there are some nice kitten-skunk photos on the internet.

[dagonell]

I can't say I'm surprized. Our kids are friends with the local raccoons. They hang out together on the back deck. I encourage the coons with occasional table scraps because coyote won't cross established coon turf.
-- Dagonell