This is an opinion column

Everybody everywhere has a morning routine that suits them I guess, even if their morning is in the afternoon.

My morning starts early here in the rural woods of Wilcox County. My alarm sounds at 5:15 and by 5:30 me and my little dog – Charles – venture outside no matter the weather.

Charles, also called Charlie, is really my daughter’s dog – a Shih Tzu – that she has permanently entrusted into my care. This old-fashioned method of transfer is how many people end up as pet owners.

All that being said, I have grown attached to the dog and have joked before about being willing to fight over Charles…and this morning I almost had my chance.

We tipped down the steps at our usual time. It was just breaking day. I could hear the purple martins already singing in their gourds, and a couple of Canadian geese were honking from the pond.

Charles checked out a clump of wild onions and two posts of the lean-to behind the barn before running wild and free through the hay field with me trailing behind.

He does this every day. He runs until he is tired, then I scoop him up and carry him back to the house where coffee and the morning headlines await.

But this morning as I watched his black figure darting through the grass, almost disappearing at times within the red-tipped clover, it felt like my eyes were playing tricks on me – I saw two black figures.

From a distance they appeared the same size. Only this new one had a white stripe on his back. For a moment, they both stopped. Frozen. Two small dark shadows in a field of green.

Then Charles growled. I didn’t even know Charles could growl, but he did. So I started yelling, “No Charles, don’t growl!”

Of course he didn’t pay me any attention, as usual, and the growling made the skunk run. Or maybe it was my yelling that made it run – either way, for an instant, I was relieved. I was hoping it would just run away, without incident.

But no, Charles being a dog, started chasing in after him, and me, being me, started chasing after both of them. I was only after Charles, but from the skunk’s perspective, there was a small dog and a red-headed woman wearing a pink, leopard print robe after him.

All this scene needed was Benny Hill music.

They made a loop around a pecan tree and when the skunk ran toward the road I ran in and intercepted Charlie.

I had him held like a football. I made a U-turn and started running back toward the front porch light.

The skunk never made it all the way to the road. It only went to the fence, and started running parallel to me along the fence line.

I think it liked Charles. It might have thought him a distant relative. I don’t know, but when I ran up the steps, the skunk had taken a sharp right and was headed toward us. It had made it to the garage. It may be hiding in the shrubs out front as I type.

I’m not going out to check, I just hope everyone is having a lively start to their day.

Amanda Walker is a columnist and contributor with AL.com, The Birmingham News, Selma Times Journal, Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, and Alabama Gazette. Contact her at [email protected] or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.