Badge of Courage

I had my first encounter with a badger last night.

I was walking home from the gym and it was dark outside.

I was walking up our front path (which is flanked by unruly shrubs right now)

When I saw a rather large animal in the middle of it, back facing me.

First I thought it was a cat on steroids,

then it turned and looked at me with a huge snout and white stripe down it's body

I immediately thought skunk and ran. It ran too.
Then in my head I thought no, it was a possum.
I guess my sneakers allowed me to quietly "sneak" up on it because we were both caught off guard.
Well there happened to be a woman walking by and she saw me running toward her and stopped.

We both looked back where I was running from and I told her there was a possum in front of my house.

She laughed and said there are no possums in England and that it was probably just a big fury cat.

It was no cat. I know what I saw.

It was one of these.

It may look harmless, but it's foreign to me.

I didn't know if it would attack, spray, strike.

I ran inside and proceeded to tell Neil the story.

I think he only half believed me. So I kept looking out the window but it was gone.

But one day he will meet Mr badger on the walk and get flustered too.

I may be walking home with sticks until daylight savings.