I happen to think that skunks are pretty darn cute.  They have such a bad rap, and it is SO undeserved.  Admittedly, I have never been sprayed by one.  But you know that stinky stuff?  That's called musk.  Yeah, they squirt that at you when they feel threatened, kinda like cats hiss and supermodels throw cellphones.  Skunks have quite good hygiene, for small mammals, and they really don't smell bad, at least not until you hit the at 80 mph, after which treatment even Naomi Campbell might smell quite putrid.  Having your insides forcibly rearranged and randomly distributed over several square meters can do that to ya.

No, they're smarter than dogs, almost as smart as raccoons, and they smell much nicer than your average dog.  Dogs reek.  So why the bad reputation?  Here it is in a nutshell: we squash them and then they stink.  We startle them, and then they make us stink.  Our pets act in a normal predatory fashion, and (surprise!) come home stinking.

Of course, they're wild animals, and deserve nothing so much as to be left alone to get on with being skunks.  So let's give them a break, eh?  And the next time you smell one on the freeway, remember that the skunk may make the musk, but the people make the stink.