An unexpected visitor

Day 7 of 31 at TWT!

"Whoa! Look at that!"

A dark, furry something with a fluffy tail scampers through the woods behind my parents' house. My brain starts running an identification algorithm: Not a squirrel. Not a groundhog. Not a coon. Not a cat. Not a fox. Ummm?

"It's like a muskrat, or a ferret or mink or something like that!" I might be hopping up and down, just a bit.

"Are ferrets wild? Do they live anywhere? I thought they were just pets!" My mom looks like she's not sure any of my possibilities are actually possibilities.

"Well, they have to live somewhere, right? Although I don't think they live around here. And I think muskrats have skinny tails, like rats, not fluffy ones... Ooh, there it is again!"

The funny whatever-it-is frolics toward clearing behind the neighbors' house.

"Maybe it's a mink. I think they live around here. Didn't we look something like this up awhile ago and it was a mink?"

"Where's my iPad?" My mom scrambles toward the counter and Googles "picture of a muskrat". (I resist the urge to tell her that she could just Google "muskrat" and there would be pictures.)

"Oh yeah, see, it has a skinny tail, not like this thing!" I remembered correctly! "I think it's a mink! Google 'mink'!"

"Yeah, and look at their bodies -- the muskrat is way too fat! This is skinny!" My mom agrees. She types something new (hopefully "mink", not "picture of a mink"), and a collage of varying views of the-thing-in-the-woods appears.

"Yes! Look! That's it! For sure!" We both squeal. "It IS a mink!"

We couldn't get a picture, but this is just what it was like! (photo credit: mink? via photopin (license)) 

One of my favorite things about nature is its constant surprises.