I didn't visit with you last week, and this is the reason why.
  The guys were working on a tractor water pump in the machine shed.  I was there to hand them wrenches, hammers or whatever was needed and to clean the dust out of the tractor cab.
  Dog Ralph was there to make a lot of noise by jumping onto the chaff spread of the combine and climbing into the back of it to look for coons, mice or whatever might be hiding there.
  Satisfied there was nothing hiding in the combine, he went to a stack of metal sheeting left over from rebuilding the shed when the storm hit two years ago.  Ralph dug in the rocky floor to get at whatever was under there.  We kept telling him to quit; it was only a mouse.  He kept  lying on his side and digging as hard as he could.  He was making so much noise none of us could hear what the other person was saying.
  Finally, I and a college student who was helping Steve that day, each took the end of a metal strip and flipped it backward.  As we flipped the last piece I saw what I thought was a big mouse nest as Ralph lurched for it.  It was no mouse nest - it was a skunk!
  I yelled, "Ralph, No, Ralph.  Get away."  He grabbed it by the back of the neck and was shaking it as hard as he could. 
  I looked to see where the student had gone. He had disappeared.  I was tuck in the corner of the shed afraid