Polecat promenade

Living in rural West Tennessee means traveling many a side road, back road, trail and track to get where you need to go. Even the main roads are pretty off the beaten path.

One certainty of auto commuting this time of year is frequent olfactory encounters with the permeating musky aroma of the skunk. It seems that late January and early February brings out the frisky nature in this woodland critter. And blinded by love, the search for the perfect mate and or the need to procreate and fornicate, these polecats forget to look both ways before crossing the highways and byways, resulting in an inordinate number of aromatic road kill.

Or maybe those left scattered around the pavement are the skunks spurned by forest love gone wrong that have flung themselves in front of oncoming Ram trucks in an effort to end their pining for a black-and-white mate.

Either way, they keep my nose busy on the way to and from the office.

Love gone wrong is always so sad.