Seeing Black and White

We were sitting at the table at dinner a couple of nights ago and I had excused myself to go into the kitchen to get something. I was around the corner and all of a sudden I heard Jeff screaming for me to come and to come quickly. Honestly, yes I'm going to be honest here, all I could think of was what did they break? I came running expecting a huge mess, probably glass, and blood to accompany it and about that time, he's loudly asking for the camera. Then I knew everything was okay, but why such urgency? I grabbed the camera and arrived out on the porch to a scene none of us has ever seen and do not expect to see again.
Right outside the french doors on the patio was a large skunk and this is the best part, her 4 babies. They were milling around on the patio. It wasn't even dark so they were easy to see. The little ones were so cute and had their tails in the air. There was about 3 feet between us and them with the windows of the door for separation. We took pictures which don't show much because of the glass doors, so we stepped outside onto a porch which connects the sunroom to our bedroom. This way we were viewing them from the side looking over at the patio. They did not seem to register our presence at all and thankfully we did not end up making any runs to the store for tomato juice.
About the time we stepped out, the mama made her way around the edge of the proch towards the side yard and disappeared. I was not about to follow her. She up and left her babies who didn't seem to be bothered by this. They kept playing and snuggling and falling all over each other. They were so cute. As we watched them I remembered that 2 of the boys had gone to the back of the property to take Patty some chili and cornbread and would be appearing in the yard on the other side of these skunks at any minute proabably running and making lots of noise. At the same time I saw the boys coming or heard them rather, they immediately saw us too so we held up our hands and said STOP! They quickly complied then realized what we were looking at. We all watched like this silently until these babies made their way through the yard and along the sidewalk to an area underneath the house under the bay window of the dining room. Oh my! Now we are wondering if they have a little home under there? This house has a basement so they cannot be too far underneath. One thing we noticed was a slight odor, very faint and they definitely did not spray us. Thank goodness!
We went back to dinner and continually checked. Jeff took a flashight a couple of times and stood at a distance but we could only partially see them. He also went into the dinigng room and knocked on the floor a little bit but they did not come out, at least for the next hour. We haven't seen them since but it would be nice to see them again as long as they keep their special odor to themselves.
I will post the pictures I took of the skunks later today. They are on the camera which Jeff has taken along with Scott to the city for a tour of Alcatraz Island.