| From the moment she was born, Rose’s mother had taught her daughter to be different from all the other
skunks that lived in the woods. She bathed in fragrant rose water, put her to bed on soft rose petals
and fed her mashed rose hips sprinkled with fresh rosemary. She didn’t want her to be stinky like all
the other skunks that ate things like skunk cabbage, stinkweed and stinkbugs. She wanted her little Rose
to be sweet. When Rose grew up she was still different from all the other skunks. She still bathed in rose water, slept on a bed of pink rose petals and ate only the finest rose hips. She drank sparkling rose water from rose-colored glasses. Her furniture was made of rosewood and she had a beautiful rose garden just outside her back door. Everything she did, smelled and tasted was like roses, even her toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant. |
Never would she spray, unless the spray was from a bottle labeled “Rose Perfume.” The other skunks were
always spraying their foul odor for any old reason, so it seemed to Rose. One day, Rose went out into her garden to pick some fresh rose hips. She was just about to reach for one when she heard a loud roar. She stopped for a moment to listen, but when she didn’t hear anything else she continued picking. Another loud roar came from somewhere behind her in the distance. What was that? What was making that noise? Rose wondered what it was. Not hearing another roar for a while, she soon stopped thinking about it and picked a few more rose hips, putting them into the basket she’d taken out with her. |
