I have aways loved to camp out. On one of our camping trips we met some of the strangest creatures. After spending the day exploring the forest, we settled in for the night. My son was sleeping in the tent and we were sitting in chairs quietly by the fire with our legs up on each others chairs. We were startled by some loud banging noises. It turned out that every night, the racoons would get into the trash barrels around the campground.
Suddenly it got very quiet. We listened to the sounds of the forest and watched the campfire. Out of nowhere a skunk came into our camp. Knowing how skunks are, we froze..hardly even breathing, as the skunk came walking up and sat down right under my chair!!! Now in case you don't know, when a skunk is startled or afraid, it will "spray" the area with a horrible smelling scent that is almost impossible to get off. We were afraid to move. But the whole thing seemed very funny and we were rying very hard not to laugh.
Soon, the skunk moved...to the table where our marshmellows were, about 3 ft away. We still did not dare move, so we sat there and watched the skunk take its own sweet time eating the remaining 7 marshmellows. The shunk then came back and sat under my chair again to groom itself. The skunk had been in our camp for at least a half an hour and we were getting sore from staying so still. Then the skunk got up, walked a few feet away, turned and looked me right in the eyes!!! He "winked" at me and then turned away and left us alone.
The next day we were driving down a road in the park heading for home. Ahead of us was something in the road. I said stop the car and we all got out to see what it was. It was a full grown tarantula!! (it was bigger than my whole hand) I went back to the car and found an empty jar. My husband and son thought I was crazy as I coaxed the spider into the jar. I brought it back to the car and we traveled down the road.
The area we found the tarantula was very open, so as soon as we got to a wooded area, we stopped again and I set the tarantula free, but not without holding and petting it first. A tarantula will only bite if it is in fear. I strongly suggest that no one try this, they have to be handled very carefully!
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