Why did Robert Connor write "How in the World Do You Get a Skunk Out of a Bottle?"

Robert Connors' essay is titled with the question, "How in the World Do You Get a Skunk Out of a Bottle?" because that was the question that he pondered the whole time during this particular situation. Connor was running on the side of a road when he saw a skunk struggling to get his head out of a glass jar. 

I think Connor wrote such a detailed, analytic essay because he himself could not explain why he turned back and tried so hard to help the skunk. He went against his own strong urge to just run home and not do anything, his own instinct. "I have a sudden desire to turn go, keep running, get home. . . . But now I realize that this skunk is my responsibility." (Connors 8 & 11) He had an overwhelming sense of responsibility over this skunk, because he knew that if someone else like the police found it, they would kill it trying to save it. He was the only one there, so he assumed the responsibility himself. I think the purpose of this essay was to say to readers that it's okay to do things on impulse, things that you know will benefit someone in the moment. Connor literally saved a life here, even thought he could have gotten sprayed or attacked. He could have just kept on running, and forgotten about the slowly dying skunk. It couldn't have earned him anything if he did it. But after the act, he felt a sense of happiness and relief, which he never really connected to the skunk, probably because it was indescribable. It was something that he just felt and couldn't place the source. Which is probably why he wrote this essay now, because he finally placed all of the feelings and actions from that day.