Flintster: where in the world are you? I think you may be next door because "I will give him a good view of the countryside where he can enjoy seeing foxes, bobcats, birds, and skunks of course. A place where trees abound, the air is fresh, and the cows are grazing!!" describes my home to a "T" Brief segue: We had two cats, Bert and Marie. Marie's the mom and was a short hair, Bert is her son and is a big puffy furball. One night I was sitting in the doorway with Marie on my lap. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bert's puffy fur so I reached over and started petting him. After a moment, I looked over at Bert and discovered it wasn't he, it was a very large (and quite pretty) skunk. My immediate dilemma was; what would piss off the skunk more: to keep petting it or to stop? I also had to worry about the cat in my lap, if she saw the skunk, she'd hiss and the skunk would then.... Fortunately, my wife entered the room and the skunk lost interest. Big sigh of relief. Unfortunately, said skunk learned to use the cat door into the garage... that now gets locked at night. If only it had been a cow or a fox or a bobcat...