The central Arizona desert can be a hot, dry place, uninviting for all but the hardiest of creatures. On the other hand, when water is brought to it the most amazing things can be grown there. Cool, shady cottonwood trees can lower the temperature from unbearably hot to just very warm, and if you add a ditch full of cold water coming straight from the river you suddenly have a very nice spot to spend a lazy summer afternoon.
Evenings and night are the magic times on the desert when everything but the people wake up and do their business. (Perhaps the people have it backwards.) Coyotes, owls, lizards, geckos all come alive when the sun goes down. As do the other nocturnal creatures, as well.
When I was a little girl my auntie came to visit us once. My sister and I gave her our room and we slept on the living room couch. One night I was awakened by something going across the floor. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Whatever it was went into the dining room and crunched a crust of bread it found on the floor. I had never heard our old pussy cat make a noise like that, she was always as quiet as a mouse.
"Catherine," I whisper quietly as I shook my sister's shoulder. "Wake up. There's something in the kitchen."
Catherine rolled over and listened. When she heard the noise she whispered back, "It's a skunk."
As we lay on the couch wondering what we should do it came back through the living room and went into our bedroom, rattling some paper behind our aunt's trunk. Auntie woke up and called mama to come and see what was in her room. My sister said, "It’s a skunk, mama," but papa said, "How could there be a skunk in the house?"
Mama got up and lighted the lamp while I made a dive for papa’s bed and snuggled down close to him. All the noise scared the old skunk, who ran out into the dining room and hid under the refrigerator. There was certainly nothing more we could do in the middle of the night, so we all went back to sleep, hoping the skunk would give up exploring our house and let itself out the same way he came in.
To our dismay, in the morning when we got up we found the skunk still hiding under the refrigerator.
"I think I can kill it without it scenting things up," my big brother offered when no one could figure out a way to coax the skunk out of the house. "Everybody says if you shoot a skunk between the eyes it will die before it can let off it's scent."
None of us were very excited about my brother trying to shoot a skunk in the dining room. It would be a tough shot to make, lying on his stomach so he could see the skunk under the refrigerator, but since no one had any better ideas papa finally gave in and let brother get his gun. He lay down on the floor under the dining room table, aimed his gun towards the refrigerator, and took his time to get everything lined up just right. Finally, when he was sure he had the perfect shot, he squeezed the trigger. He shot that old skunk right between the eyes, just like he planned, but it didn't work out the way he had hoped, because the skunk scented up the dining room anyway. Peeeeewwww!! It was awful! We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, but we could not get the smell out. Finally we had to paint the refrigerator and the whole room to get rid of it. Whew, what a mess!
When we looked around the next morning we found the back door ajar and papa remembered seeing some of the grand children eating grapes on the door step that evening. You can bet he got busy and fixed the door so we had no more such visitors in the night.
(from memories of Ethel H. Stewart)
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