Skunks!

One of these days…!

We know that we have skunks living in our neighborhood. One family may even live beneath our neighbors garden shed! I was hosing down some plants (a long time ago now) when I heard our neighbor very softly say “Colin. Don’t move, There’s a skunk about 3 ft behind you!” Needless to say I froze until she gave me the “all clear”! You can therefore understand our caution with Ray as, without doubt, he would go charging after any skunk he saw and certainly have huge regrets later.

We have been very lucky to date with Ray and skunks, as there have been no potential confrontations…. until this evening! We headed off on our “mailbox run” and, just a few doors down from our house, a friend stopped us to ask about Carol’s progress and was generally interested in GBS. While Carol was relating the experience, I just happen to look down the street and saw something black and white crossing the bottom and onto our side. It was about 70-80 yds away.

Plan A was to get Ray over onto the other side as soon as Carol had finished talking and was ready to move on. We needed to give the (presumed) skunk some time to wander well away from our street when we took Ray down it!

The conversation finished and I guided Ray over to the other side and onto the side walk when, about 40-50 yds away, a family of skunks were starting to cross the road and coming over to our side! There appeared to be 2 adults and 3 (perhaps 4) youngsters. Very cute…. but very disconcerting!

Plan B was to cross back over the street once again and hopefully not bump into the first skunk I saw. That plan never got off the ground because once we had crossed over, the family of skunks (who had disappeared into a front garden) reappeared and seemed intent on walking on the sidewalk which, based on our current plan, would mean Ray and a family of skunks passing within a street width! Ray would be impossible!

Plan C was quickly formed! We would turn Ray around completely and go in the opposite direction (thereby hopefully staying ahead of, and increasing our distance from the skunk family). It worked out relatively well until Ray saw the family. He then lunged towards them as best he could but, apart from jarring my arm (I’ll no doubt feel it in the morning), he was restrained.

We were very lucky! Our street is about 20ft wide road, and a skunk’s spray is apparently highly accurate up to 10ft. It would seem to me that if one of the parents had moved over 5ft to protect the ‘kids”, and if Ray had managed to lunge the length of his leash (6ft) then, according to my math, we would have all been in trouble!

Until the next time…!

37 thoughts on “Skunks!”

    • Hi Ann – I have had no personal experience of it, and would like to stay that way, but yes… there are a number of “home remedies” but it would appear that none are 100%. Their spray is brutal on the senses, and we often notice it in the early morning as a result of some creature being sprayed during the night.

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  3. On a serious note. Skunks are normally nocturnal creatures and when I see them out in the daytime here in my part of the world I get quite concerned about the possibilities they could be rabid. Please be extra careful !

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    • You are correct. Our incident was at 9:00pm which is the most suitable time, with our current heat wave, for us to get Ray out. Seeing nocturnal life on the move around here is not unusual in those dusk conditions. In daylight? A very different story as something is clearly wrong.

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  4. Mom has treated dogs who got sprayed by putting them in a kennel and directing an ionizing air machine into the kennel. It removes the smell totally. Forget tomato juice. Just a word to the wise, for just in case BOL!

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  7. I try to live by the motto: ” There are no mistakes in life, only small lessons learned.” I keep the supplies on hand in case Yule gets skunked again. My grocery store is not open after midnight.

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  9. Oh this post had me smiling! I was thinking how glad I was that Ray and Carol didn’t get sprayed, but if only there could have been a way…….yeah I think you can finish the sentence for me 🙂 🙂

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  10. Our curious dog approached one in our new PA. backyard and was sprayed directly in the face. Until the day he died, he smelled faintly of that skunk when he got wet. Be careful out there.

    p.s. Before he went outside, from that day forward, he stopped and sniffed at the door. If a skunk was anywhere in the “hood”, he came back inside. ☺

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