|
major corporate support for Nature provided by
Everyone seems to have a skunk story. What’s yours?
Maybe you’ve been the victim of a direct hit from the dreaded spray. Or maybe you love skunks, and even keep one as a pet. We want to hear your skunk tales — positive or negative.
Use the comment form below to share your skunk tale.
Then, tune in when Is That Skunk? premieres Sunday, January 25 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings).
(50 votes)
Loading ...179 comments
When I was in the 5th grade, my dog was sprayed by a skunk. The next morning, on my way to the bus stop, I petted my dog for several minutes. As I was getting on the bus, one of my neighbors commented about a pungent skunk smell. I explained that my dog had been sprayed the night before, not realizing the smell was emanating from my clothes.
When class started that morning, my teacher stopped her lesson, asking, “where is that smell coming from?” Terrified, I sunk in my seat, hoping that she was not talking about me. Eventually, after walking around the room sniffing, she singled me out. She sent me to the nurse, demanding that I come back with new clothes. I cried and became known as “skunk boy” for the rest of the year.
I was visiting the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo early one summer when I observed a very small skunk sneak into the gorilla outdoor enclosure. It made it’s way through a gap in the fence and ambled over to the gorilla’s food dish. As the skunk ate the Silverback of the troup would come over and the skunk would duck back through the gap in the fence, knowing full well the gorilla could not get it. Over about 20 minutes I watched this little skunk eat it’s fill of the fruits, vegetables and gorilla chow sitting at ground level. What a clever little creature.
I have two skunk stories. Two years ago, I was driving in North Charlestown, NH around midnight and i slowed down to watch a HUGE WHITE skunk with a narrow black stripe down its back shuffle off the road and into the bushes on the side. I’m not sure whether it looked larger than normal because it was bright white in the headlights or whether it was a really fluffy and large skunk. The second story just happened two weeks ago near my home in Oakland, CA. I was driving on rural Redwood Rd and I drove around a sharp curve and surprised a young buck and a skunk having a tete-a-tete, or actually a nose-to-nose! They both immediately turned and bolted / shuffled off in opposite directions. They sure did look like they had been caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing! Very strange…
Having worked with wild and Domestic skunks for thirty one years, I have many stories to tell. I will tell you one of my favorites. Years ago we were called to a all night grocery store. It seemed a wild skunk had entered the supermarket through the back doors where a semi truck had been unloading . A SKUNK in a supermarket! He may never come out! After much discussion, a plan was in order. I had suggested we lay a trail of miniture marshmellows from the skunks present position, up and around aisles and leading out into the night.The skunks first attempt was to bat and roll the tiny marshmellow, then he started to eat the small morsel. The marshmellow got stuck on the roof of the skunks mouth. Thier he lay, using his long nails to try and remove the marshmellow from the roof of his mouth. Finally it dislodged and was swallowed. He then began the quest to follow each and every marshmellow we had laid as a trail to guide him out of the supermarket. Would he take the bait? would he become too full of marshmellows just short of his destination? The plan worked, the skunk followed the marshmellow trail, up the aisles, and out the opened back door and into the night. We all gave a high five, and my husband and myself returned home. All was well, and the skunk in a supermarket episode was a covert operation. So we thought! Next day, while watching the noon news, we hear ( Skunk closes supermarket for four hours) We had a good laugh, and some more coffee.
I had not been going to get another skunk, when I received an email from a lady who had returned a male kit to the breeder in exchange for his sister. She couldn’t have both, but desperatly wanted him to get a home, and quickly. After some debate, I made arrangements to go and get him. As I went to pick him up he grunted and rrrrred and stomped. This is his way, to this day. You go to pick him up and he sounds like he is going to tear you apart. Once in your arms, he grabs two paws of shirt smacks his lips three times yawns and promptly goes to sleep. All bluster !!! His name is Badger. Cindy
I got my 1st pet skunk about 30 years ago and at the time we lived on the 2nd floor of a 2 family house. Stanley used to hide behind the door and when someone came in he would bolt out of the door, down the steps and out the door. He was brought back a few times by the local police who used to use him to scare the drunks that they had picked up the night before. They put Stanley in the cell with them and when they woke up they would screem being terrified since there was a skunk in there with them!!! Very funny!! Anyway, I now have several pet skunks who I have all gotten from Skunkhaven Domestic Skunk Rescue and they are all wonderful!! So is Deb Cipriani & Kevin Wilson, who tirelessly run the shelter. I am one of her reps!
I’ve been to SkunkHaven a few times and that was where I met my first skunk face-to-face — they are so cute!! I love the way they grunt and wiggle when they walk. Skunks are very precious citizens of Nature.
Deb and Kevin of Skunk Haven and their reps (nationwide) and friends are extra-special people, who know alot about skunks and take great care of them.
Skunks have awesome, unique personalities, and extra special attitude. I wish I lived in a Skunks-Allowed state so I could have one or two as pets!!
I also wish more people would understand and respect skunks instead of fearing or hating them.
I am the Director of a non-profit organization entitled CRITTER TALES INC. We travel the State of Oklahoma with our wildlife education programs. We present at Schools, Scout Groups, Churches, Libraries, Special Events, and even private parties. Touching is a teaching tool…using live animals can help the public connect with nature in a more personal way. We have a skunk named Charlie. He was born in captivity, descented, vet checked, and approved for public use. There many “tall tales” regarding skunks and their lives. Caring for a skunk requires much work and knowledge of dietary needs. We do not encourage pet skunks. We inform the public to remain at a distance with wild skunks, and if need be they should contact an expert for skunk problems on thier personal peropety. We recommend “THE SKUNK WHISPERER.” He educates persons on humanely removing skunks and not inviting them to return.
For more details on Critter Tales Inc. please visit our website at http://www.crittertalesinc.com
I’m a wild skunk rehabber in Los Angeles, California. I generally wear dirty, baggy sweats, my hair in a pony tail and no makeup when I’m working with the wild animals I care for. One day I had a date coming over so I put on a little dress, did my hair, makeup, jewelry and perfume. I thought I’d give the baby skunks a snack before my date came over. I had their cages at eye level. I approached the cage with their snacks but they didn’t recognize me all cleaned up so they sprayed me in the face, 15 minutes before my date was due. I instantly soaked my face in skunk-off and changed my dress. The doorbell rang and I went to greet my date. He said he could smell the skunks from the sidewalk. He came in and we had a lovely evening in spite of the face full of spray. Over 40, not in the best shape of my life, skunk spray on my face but I still got it! Skunk photos and videos http://www.animaladvocates.us
My oldest sister is now 68 and I still hear tales about the time she and my cousin tried to push “kitty” into a dog house. Kitty turned out to be a skunk and sis spent most of the day soaking in a tub of my mom’s home-canned tomatoes.
My neighbor has a black cat which my son cornered in the garage, so he thought-it was a skunk that he swears didn’t have the typical black stripe. Same son later caught a skunk in a hav-a-hart trap which he successfully released. Some folks are just blessed, I guess.
I would like to commend Deb Cipriani of Skunk Haven (www.skunkhaven.net). Without her help, many domestic skunk owners would be up a creek without a paddle! She has dedicated her life and her home to domestic and wild skunks and their care. Anyone who is owned by a domestic skunk should refer to her web-site!
As a child under 6 years old, my parents gave me a stuffed three foot skunk to love! In the 80’s I was camping in Colorado and I heard pitter patter of feet behind the tent. I came out to see a family of skunks. I sat on the picnic table talking to them. Rick and a few friends came back from playing games, to see me sitting there in amazement that I never got sprayed! January 2000 my mother died and I bought my first domestic skunk in June to fill the void. Daisy got dreadfully sick in Dec of 2000. It was then my vet and I realized there was hardly to none collective data about the medical aspects of skunks . This is what started our quest to help skunks in the future. Daisy was my teacher to help the skunks. If she was a healthy skunk none of this would have happen. Now living with 30 -70 skunks in our home at any given time I would be lost with out my skunk family.
To date one of our goals is to set standards on skunks so vets can have more of a guide line on skunks. We also do educational programs on Skunk Awareness to teach the public on wild and domestic skunks. Rescues and Adoptions for domestics. Open the doors to helping wild orphan skunks for release as well. I want to say that all the representatives of Skunk Haven Inc are a great bunch of people and are there to help when ever they can.
Since the year of 2000 we have met so many nice skunk people . Joined several skunk organizations. (they also help many skunks owners) Gone to Skunk Shows in Florida, and a Skunk Fest in Ohio. YES there are skunks shows!! (The public should go to one you will leave with a better understanding on skunks).
I do want to say thank you to two ladies whom have passed on. Ginny and Jane who set the roots for the rest of us to grow on . They dedicated their lives to skunks and were two very special ladies.
This filming is a step forward for the betterment of skunks and hoping they will be recognized for the special loving animals they are. Also to distinguish the difference between wild skunks which are born in the wild and our domestics which are bred and born in captivity for pets.
Please join us in watching this program of PBS NATURE “IS THAT SKUNK?”
Early one morning as a kid while I prepared to head out on my paper route, a skunk came ambling by, blinded by a Nesquick can stuck on its head. I stayed quiet and just watched it keep walking down the street, banging the can as it zigzagged along. Thirty years later, I have often wondered if that skunk ever got the can off his head?
I had gotten my first skunk nearly 8 years ago from a breeder. I thought I was educated enough on the care for her. She became very sick and I didn’t know what to do. I found Deb Cipriani of Skunk Haven’s phone number on a new skunk owner brochure. At 2am I called crying hysterically. She talked to me for hours without even knowing me and helped save my skunk. After that I went to my first Skunkfest (held in September in Ohio)and learned a lot more about skunks. Since then I have adopted quite a few skunks from Skunk Haven. (To me they are like chips, I can’t have just one!) I love them all dearly and each one has such a unique personality.
I have become a rep for Skunk Haven and go out to teach people that skunks (both wild and domestic) are not as bad as people think. I love talking and teaching about them. They tend to be very misunderstood. A domestic skunk is not a pet for just anyone, they take a lot of care. Hopefully after watching this people will have a better understanding about them and not fear or hate them.
I would like to say a special thanks to Deb and Kevin of Skunk Haven for all the skunks and people they have helped.
As kids growing up in Oregon in the early 60’s, we all had animals that we adopted from the wild (and had permits to keep them from the state). My animal of choice was the skunk. We had several over the years, all allowed in the house except at night. They really bonded to people and were constant companions as soon as you came in the door after school. One of my guys would herd me to a favorite chair and pester me until I picked him up, at which time he would promptly climb up the chair, over me and up to the top of the chair to form a heated, fuzzy neck warmer. We never had bites or the least indication of aggressiveness. Pet skunks are not permitted in Washington state - a very sad situation indeed. I hope one day the rabies paranoid will pass and more people will enjoy this magnificent loving creature.
My roommate and I came home one night and found a baby skunk on our back porch with a slurpee lid stuck around it’s neck. (It looked like a cone that vets put on dogs to stop them from licking wounds.) I was born and raised in the big city, had no idea what to do, all i knew was that it HAD to come off. so i put on a pair of gloves, went outside, held down it’s butt so it couldn’t spray me and cut the lid off. I went online later that week and found out baby skunks can’t spray, so i was pretty lucky. I noticed when i cut it off, that the lid was starting to get stuck in the fur, so i had to cut some of his hair too, but no skin was exposed. I even saw the little guy a couple weeks later…obviously avoiding our porch.
There is a special place in my heart for wildlife rehabilitators who raise and release orphaned skunks. I have never turned them away and am the proud surrogate mother of hundreds, all now thankfully released back into the wild. Early on in my career as a wildlife care specialist, I learned that skunk spray, in the eyes, will ruin your day completely. It was then that my contact lenses were discarded and I have chosen to wear my glasses to prevent that pain from happening again. They are certainly a challenge, but I have learned the ropes to avoid spraying in captivity, but you also learn to cope with the odor while working after your stinker charges have resolved a disagreement.
We love our skunks at Wild Heart Ranch, and are strong advocates for this amazing example of evolution. An animal who carries it’s own weapon should be more respected! We are grateful to PBS for bringing them to the forefront, and I would also like to send kudos out to one of my favorite Wildlife heroes, Ned Bruha, “The Skunk Whisperer” for his ground breaking nuisance removal methods that allow these displaced skunks as well as the rest of our wild friends, to go about their way after he has intervened.
Annette
#17 just made a mistake, baby skunks CAN and do “whiff” (spray). Next piece of advise, if pet skunks are legal in your locality do not descent a wild skunk to make a pet of it, buy a breeder raised skunk, their instincts have been altered to some degree, their colors are different, their size is larger and their diet is altered. But, they are the same sweet critters that come in the wild just happeier being a pet than a wild one is.
I got my first skunk from a breeder an thought I was feeding her just fine , to find out at 1 year old she had a lot of trouble walking, then in a short while couldn’t walk. I searched for help, that’s when I found Deb at Skunk Haven. My vet said the skunk had very low calcium (Her bones were breaking) Deb told me what to feed her and what to watch for, And of all be patient. In aprox 6-7 months she was walking again and healing, bone density was back. She was 9 years old when she died. Since then she has helped me with my 2 new Skunks, whom are doing great thanks to her
::::THANK YOU:::: DEB
I Love Skunks. The first wild one I saw I was so excited and we were camping and it was right underneath our brand new car. I kept shaking sleeping hubby to wake him up to look. He looked and said shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it will hear you and spray and of course it did not and I continued talking to it. It was so beautiful. Now I am the new Mommie to a little baby boy domestic skunker after having lost the love of my life. I can’t express how much she made me laugh and loved me in a special way and I cried for months and was not going to get another one and then someone rescued one that needed a Mommie and I knew that was me. Safado is a sweetheart too but I will never forget or get over losing my baby Georgie.
I got a call about a paralyzed skunk in Silver Lake. This skunk was dragging his legs and couldn’t control his anal glands. I brought him home and he was still leaking spray on himself. Skunks don’t like getting spray on themselves. A veterinarian friend of mine suggested that I express his anal glands until he can control his glands. I believe I am probably the first, and last person to express a skunk’s anal glands. The spray never became aerosol but my eyes, nose, lips still burned. My mouth tasted like metal. Everything smelled like a bar with beer soaked carpeting for two weeks. If anyone needs to do this, use googles, nose clip and a nose/mouth mask while mouth breathing only. The skunk regained the ability to walk in two weeks, was finally releasable after two months. He was the sweetest little guy.
I am a proud mommy skunk to Scotty and Sunny DeSkunky. Scotty was adopted from Debbie Cipriani’s skunkhaven rescue. He will be 6 this year. Sunny came from a pet store. I can’t say in words how much I love my skunks and what fun we have at Skunkfest each year. They are amazing, wonderful animals. They are very clean and quiet. By far the best pets I have ever had.
Sage, a smoke chip, and Bu, a mahogany live in our home with four cats. Yes, skunks come in many different colors and yes, they make wonderful cuddlers. Some require more attention than others. They are not a cat or dog and require a varied diet and a vet who understands their differences. Sage is my little “Skoon” as he is nicknamed for his climbing ability of a raccoon. Many will say skunks don’t climb…I have baby locks on all my cabinets, refrigerator and areas he needs not to be in. Keeping ahead of what he’s thinking is a full time job. And yes, there are even skunk shows. Feel free to email me for some really funny pictures from our last show in Daytona Beach, Florida or if the thought of having a skunk as a pet in Florida is on your mind. LynndaB@att.net President, Skunks As Pets, Inc. Florida
nasty but i love the nature shows there cool
I am so glad that this show is airing to enlighten people on the wonderful skunks. Three own me, one bought and 2 recues. I will not have a home anymore without these little cuddlebugs in my life.
I’ve always enjoyed the ‘night crew’ that comes into my yard looking for bugs, snails and the like. One memorable summer evening a certain momma and her 4 babies who always came into the backyard showed up earlier than usual, while I was still outside. I didn’t want to scare them by rushing indoors so I stood absolutely still as they toddled around the yard. The babies swarmed around me, nuzzling my bare feet with their wet little noses. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing ;) Very sweet creatures and always a great pleasure to see them on their nightly journey.
I got my first skunk in 2000, she was an orphaned 2 week old. She taught me so many different things about what I thought I knew, and found out I didn’t. One of my favorite stories, and I have so many, but this one, I was allowed to take her to work with me, I had to feed her every two hours for awhile, anyway, after she opened her eyes and could follow me, she never left my side, or should I say my heels. It was awesome, but the best part is that at the time I worked in a facility for the aged. They all fell in love with her too. For the next 6 years she was a part of the facility and everybody there. She was a great teacher to all who got to know her. I can’t imagine my life without my skunks. She’s gone now, but I have 4 who I am blessed to have in my life. I will always have skunks.
About 15 years ago I had ofgotten to close my garage door. At 7:30 AM I proceeded to my car so that I could drive to work. As I approached the rear of the vehicle I saw a baby skunk. Of course, I didn’t want to hurt it or even start up my car. I claped my hands and the little critter went under the car to the frint. I went baxk into my house and called my boss to tell her that I would be a little late and why. She said, “I’ve heard of fish stories, but never a skunk story. ” Ten minutes or so later I entered the garage near the front of the car and banged on the hood. No movement, yet. I banged the left fender and out it ran going between garages heading for the open road. My family always wondered if this little one was the baby of the skunk that “HIT” our neighborhood at 10″00PM for years. We could just about set our watches with the scent.
I was born and raised on the farm, so skunks have never been a stranger to me. I always thought they were such pretty critters. Yes, they could fill the air with quite an aroma, but I knew that was the only defense they had. My dad only shot one skunk ever, and it was visibly sick. He always said that the skunks took care of a lot of the rodents who did damage in the corn crib. It wasn’t until I was very much an adult (a grama!) that I began my wonderful journey into the Skunk World. I have been owned by two who are now at The Bridge. Presently, my nine month old Sammi shares my home, bed, and, and like my two who are now angels, has a huge chunk of my heart. She was born in Iowa … shipped to Florida to a pet store … didn’t sell … was rescued … thru others in the Skunk World, traveled from Florida back to Iowa to her forever home. She has traveled a LOT more than I have! Be a skunk … travel to sooth a heart! :-)
It has been a long time coming, but in July of 2007, I became the owner of my first skunk,Belle. She is a wild rescue and 3 homes before she came to me and her forever home. In December of the same year I was able to reunite Belle with her brother Pepe. He was placed in 3 home also before he came to me. I love my babies and they are great pets and so loving. They get along well with the dogs and cats also. I have loved my daughter’s skunks before I got my own and I still do. So not only am I a skunk Mommy, I am also a skunk Nana.
I’m an animal love of all kinds. I’m in my 30’s and have had animal family members all of my life. I have had as small as a hamster, to as big as a 12′ long alligator, and everything in between. I got my skunk Lacie from a breeder in 2008. I love her to death. She is the best pet I have every had. She has changed my life for the better. By watching and learning from her, I have adopted her claim way of life. I am going to get another one but it will be a rescued one from Deb Cipriani at Skunkhaven. They are wonderful animals (skunks that is)!!!!!
I am a animal lover, but the skunk has really made a huge impact on me. I have my own skunk kids and in 2007 my mom get herself two kits. They are wonderful pets full of unconditional love…what more could a person ask for!!
You know, I wish the person who had seen that skunk with a Nesquick can on its head had at least called the local animal shelter or wildlife rescue league. That skunk could have died with that can on his head. Also certain yogurt containers (Yoplait was mentioned in some cases) have a nasty habit of getting stuck on the heads of all wild critters who stick their heads into the container to get the last lick of yogurt. They CANNOT pull their heads out of those containers. These animals will suffocate becuz it is VERY hard for the animals to get that container off their heads. Have a heart — report any animal you see in distress and if you see ANY containers carelessly tossed on the street or the side of the road or at campsites — PLEASE put them in the proper receptacle– you may be saving many animals’ lives that way!
I have been proudly “owned” by 3 pet skunks. My first skunk, Cocoa Beanie, passed away a little over 2 years ago and I was devastated. I immediately banished the thought and friends’ advice to get another skunk…how could I possibly ever love another pet the way I loved Beanie? I cried so many times over the next few months but always refused to even think of getting another.
One day I was contacted by a rep of SkunkHaven about an older skunk that had come to them and was in need of a home. I was not interested I told them. I just could not get close to another skunk only to lose him. Another month went by and this rep slowly turned my thinking around. I knew I had given Beanie the best 5 years I could and when he passed on, he knew how much he was loved. Now, another skunk needed someone to love him and care about him.
How could I say NO? It took several weeks and a couple of wonderful volunteers to transport my new skunk, Charlie, from the shelter in Ohio to his new home on the opposite coast! But it only took one look at him to fall in love!
Charlie has been with me almost 2 years now. We also have a younger boy, Trapper, who joined Charlie about 3 months after his arrival. Last year, Charlie was diagnosed with degenerative disease. He was unable to walk and the vet’s outlook was grim, telling me Charlie would never waalk again. They recommended I think about putting Charlie down. Once again, I was inconsolable and reached out to Deb at SkunkHaven. Deb, like so many other times, immediately formed a game-plan and sent me tons of information on skunk health. We came up with a supplement regimen and diet plan. Within one month of this new regimen, Charlie was up and walking! He has been on his feet since and I cannot thank Deb and the SkunkHaven staff for their support, their dedication and help for not only my Charlie, but for every domestic skunk out there. The word needs to get out about these wonderful people and what they have accomplished!
Because of Deb and SkunkHaven, Charlie is living healthier and happier than ever before…and I have been able to share the good news AND educate my local vet on what I learned about skunk health. We are both better for it…but Charlie is a beautiful living-breathing-WALKING testimony!
My dad used to tell this story about meeting a skunk on his way down to the river on narrow path with his fishing pole in his hand. The trail cut down over the bank through thick salmon berries and ferns when suddenly he came face to face with a skunk coming up from the river. The skunk did a back flip and let go, then disappeared. My father was left standing there sprayed from top to bottom.
I JUST WANTED TO SAY I HAVE 2 “GRAND SKUNKS” AND THEY ARE THE CUTEST, SWEETEST BABIES YOU WILL EVER MEET. MY FIRST ‘GRAND SKUNK”, COCOA BEANIE PASSED AWAY ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO AND MY DAUGHTER WAS DEVASTATED. HE WAS LIKE A CHILD TO HER AND IT WAS VERY HARD LOSING HIM. I DID NOT THINK SHE WOULD WANT TO GET ATTATCHED TO ANOTHER SKUNK AGAIN BUT HER LOVE FOR THEM WAS ALL IT TOOK TO CHANGE HER MIND. SHE NOW HAS 2 MORE THAT WERE RESCUES AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL! (A LITTLE SPOILED MAYBE BUT THEY ARE WORTH IT) A BIG THANK YOU TO SKUNK HAVEN FOR FINDING THESE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES A LOVING HOME AND MAKING MY DAUGHTER SO HAPPY.
We have a Skunk who was found wandering around London Airport(Skunks are not native to the UK). On investigation it appears that during the night he climbed aboard a cargo plane in Toronto when the door had been left open, and hitched a lift to London.
We call him Stinky, and although a wild Skunk he never fires off and allows himself to be gently stroked. Skunks are amazing animals that seem to have a natural affection for humans.
Magick my skunk was once found in my fridge on one of the shelves eating mashrooms, I all most died, he was so lucky the fridge door didnt shut on him. It taught me a lesson thats for sure.
I am owned by four domestic skunks, one black and white classic (like you’d see in the woods), one albino..yep, pink eyes, nose, toes, one smoke marble and one smoke swirl..both of which are gray and white with different “patterns”. The last three I walk on a leash. The black and white just walks with me all over town, no leash. Some of the looks we get from people are priceless!
I got my first skunk baby, Michael, back in 1978. He was the love of my life. Until I got him — he was an albino male, by the way, I had never thought of owning a skunk. And now, I can’t inmagine not sharing my life with at least one! It’s not the same as a cat or dog (and I also have a husky and 3 cats). Somehow, the skunks and I just understand each other. Perhaps it’s a totem animal or some weird psyhic thing, I really don’t know. I just know that my relationship with the 3 I have now, Marsh (albino male — I always seem to wind up with one), Prissy (a blank and whie female) and Tinker (a black and white male), is totally unique and somehow it makes me feel very settled and content to be around them. Even just to watch them wander around my living room and snort at my dog is for me very calming. Every one of them has had such a strong personality too. I’ve had crabby skunks, bossy skunks, devilish sknunks, huggy lap-skunks, the whole gamut. Skunks aren’t right for everybody, but for me, it’s a perfect fit.
My mom is #40 — I just wanted to say that not only is she an awesome mom and a great person, she is also a rep for Skunk Haven (PA). They do a lot of really good work educating people about skunks and taking care of ones that nobody wants. All 3 of my mom’s fur kids right now are rescues from people who couldn’t take care of them. Mom also is editor of The Skunk News, which is a really cool newstetter Skunk Haven puts out for its members.
Re: Nesquick can stuck on skunk’s head
Nazar,
It was 30 years ago, and I was only 10 years old on my paper route at 5:30 am. I apologize that I didn’t have the maturity to immediately call the wildlife rescue league. Jeez, relax.
On a recent trip to Tennessee from Norfolk,Virginia we were “skunked” 19 times from the venting system in our truck. My husband had warned me that the scenery is beautiful but it might not smell so good once we hit the border of Tennessee. Sure enough as we passed Bristol,there came the smell all the way to our final stop in Knoxville. What an experience!!!!t
About 3 years ago I lived on a farm with my husband and small son. We enjoyed seeing the skunks and other wildlife almost daily. Until we started to smell skunk spray every night. It seemed like our dog was constantly being sprayed. Then one day out of the blue when I went outside one day a giant skunk charged at me. But it didn’t spray be, it just stood it’s ground. I went back in and didn’t think much of it. Over the next couple of days though every time myself or my family went outside the same skunk would charge at us. I was 8 months pregnant with a 2 year old as well so I was worried about the skunk having rabies and biting myself or my child.
So we had someone come out and kill the skunk. I was relieved but sad at the same time because I knew that skunks were sweet gentle animals that just wanted to be left alone. We didn’t think much of it until 2 days later, when we heard squeeling.
Our dog had found and killed a kit!! I FELT TERRIBLE!!!!! The “rabid” skunk was actually a mommy :( I still feel terrible to this day! The next day a heard some noise again and ran out to help. The dog had another kit but hadn’t killed it. So I picked it up with a shovel and started walking to the back of our shop to put it in a safe place. Halfway there the poor little thing sat up and looked at me with this sad face. I knew they could spray young to I walked pretty fast the rest of the way to where I was putting the little guy. I went back later to check and the skunk was gone. (and the dog hadn’t gotten it.)
I am still sad about killing the mommy skunk. Also I wonder what happened to that baby.
So I would like to tell everyone out there. Don’t assume that they are all rabid. ALWAYS call animal control first so you don’t end up killing a mommy like I did. It’s heartbreaking!
I was walking from my house towards my garage when I noticed a large skunk, pulling over and over at something that was hidden from view. I walked closer and saw that a mother skunk was trying to pull her five baby skunks out of our soccer net. Each kitten-sized baby skunk was caught, hanging from the net,wiggling and softly crying. I ran to my house and grabbed my husband’s favorite rain coat, goggles, gloves and scissors. As I was running back through the yard, I heard my husband calling, “not in my coat!” I carefully freed each skunk while the mother watched. I then left to attend a play at Wellesley College. Sitting in the audience, I heard the person in front of me whisper, “WHAT is that smell?!”
Skunks are wonderful critters, both wild and domestic. Years ago on my farm in Michigan, a mother skunk raised her litters in my barn over a period of three years. She never sprayed us, or the horses, or the dogs or cats. She did however get a good shot off at my Toulouse gander, who would never leave well enough alone. That goose was just plain mean, and he deserved it. I now live in Florida, where I’m owned by two domestic skunkie furballs. I got my first domestic skunk over thirty years ago, and I was hooked. I founded The Florida Skunk Rescue five years ago to help find loving homes for Domestic Skunks. (www.skunkrescue.com.)
This happened tonight… I had the front door open because it was hot in the house and a skunk walked in the door. It looked around and then walked out. I slammed the door shut in a panic. I’ve seen it before. I think that it lives under my porch.
We have skunks near year round here in my yard. While all the other neighbors and my family are petrified and run indoors, I just sit on my porch with my coffee and smoke, and watch them. If one wanders on the porch to close to me, I merely tssssss at him and shooo him away. They always look up at me, cock their head to one side and then toddle off to eat or play. We seem to have an understanding.
I found skunks made wonderful pets. During the last 10 years I had 4 females and they were raise with my cat. They were very loving animals who cuddle with me every chance they got. Now that they have passed I will miss them very much. They brought joy and happiness and I made a lot of friends around the country who have own or have skunks as pets.
I got my first skunk, Rozie, a brown and white in the spring of 1997. I read up on them, got into the Skunks As Pets group, but it was very challenging. I came home one day and was greeted by a sticky walk, Rozie had gotten in the fridge and grabbed a bag of marshmallows. Of course she got a bath. When the winter came, she loved to sleep with me. I had a waterbed, so between the heat of the bed, me, and the blankies, she made a nice den, only I found her one night leaning her tail end over the bed to poop, because she was too cold to leave the bed to find the litter box. I have had 3 skunks come from breeders and the rest are rescues. I love all animals, but skunks are my favorite.
As a wildlife rehabilitator in Los Angeles for 18 years, boy do I have stories that could keep you entertained for a whole day! I have some of the stories on my SKUNKS Scentral web site http://www.StinkyBusiness.org as well as helpful ideas on how to peacefully coexist with this creature and the benefits of doing so. I’ve had to deal with every situation imaginable that I’ve come to know how they think, what every twitch means, that I’ve written many books and articles on them http://www.ScratchnSniffPublishing.com, as well as how to rehabilitate them. The next book is The Skunk Whisperer which will amuse you with stories from beginning to end.
I guess my most amusing story is when an elderly lady called me to remove a family of skunks from under her house. I caught the mom first, then half the babies. The woman watched how I caught them without being sprayed, so called me the next morning to tell me that SHE had caught the rest of them. I was ready to release them when a TV production company let me know that they wanted to film the release and other work that I do. Ok, this was the first time that I had a ‘family’ of skunks and was wondering how I could clean the cage without being sprayed. To make a long story short, I carefully took out one baby at a time to wash them but mom’s tail slowly slid out from under all the babies as I took the first one. I talked with her explaining what I was going to do. As I returned the first clean baby, she pulled him to her as I took the second baby. As I returned the second baby - all sweet smelling and clean - she pulled him to her and ACTUALLY started pushing the dirty babies towards me so I’d wash them too!! They are truly the most entertaining creature I’ve ever worked with!
I have a skunk in my bed every night and would not have it any other way.
She is now almost 7 years old and I will be heartbroken when I do not have her anymore. I would have a skunk before a cat any day, even though I also love my 15 year old cat.
I am the proud mom to two domestic skunks who had a less than pleasant beginning. The one I want to discuss is Raphael. He was returned after several months of poor diet and abuse and I received him by way of his original breeder. Unfortunately, Raphael had been give raw chicken with bone-in that is supposed to be safe. Unfortunately, that was not the case. For 6 weeks Ralphie daily had bloody prolapsed [his colon being pushed out of his rectum] and I was nearly to the point of having his colon and intestines sewn in to inhibit this painful happening. I had tried every dietary change, etc etc, Finally Cody and Arnold Hildabrand, of the Wild Brother Skunk Research group, suggested as a last resort to give him high fiber foods… had tried low fiber, etc etc. The night after his first day on this diet, while I was helping him pull the prolapse back inside I felt something sharp. I did not want to try to extract it in case I might tear his colon or intestines. The following day a sharp shard of chicken leg bone came out and since that day Raphael has not had a single prolape. The reason I want to share this is that when there is pleasant outdoor weather, often unaware picnickers and campers toss chicken bones or other food remnants into the wild so the animals can enjoy. Unfortuanately, as seen in Ralphie’s case, instead such well meaning actions can result in much pain and suffering and possibly even death of our wild friends. For this reason, I am asking that as picnickers and campers we carry out the remains of our foods to protect those beautiful wild creatures we enjoy seeing so much. It is the truly kind thing to do. Thank you for reading this.
A mother skunk fell into one of our window wells and her seven babies fell (or jumped) in after her. We hired a trapper to remove them all and take them to the forest preserve for release.
My family and I went to a campground in Virginia called Beth Page. At sundown every night the skunks came right through the grounds. They walked right down the middle of the campground and mingled with the humans. Without getting to close they looked for what ever they could get and moved on. You could always tell when they were there because they brought their very noticeable calling card with them. If you are ever at this campground, hang around the main road near the playground and you will very likely see and smell them.
I grew up on a dairy farm and had encountered many wild animals. One fall around midnight, I was helping my dad bring in the cows from pasture when he yelled, “Don’t move”. As I found out, I was too late. My mom rushed me into the tub and used her recently canned tomato juice to help eliminate the odor. I seem to remember smelling like a skunk spray and tomato juice combination. I’m not sure which was worse!
During a hot, droughty summer in central Texas, I found a mother skunk and her babies in our swimming pool. We never knew when they would show up and take over the pool so we couldn’t swim.
We were renovating our kitchen as a result we had lots of take out. The racoons would dump our garbage and the skunks would share the bounty. Eventually we just put out our scraps in a foil dish. We had 3 yearling racoons and a young skunk eat out of the same dish. They would push each other out of the bowl like four puppies on a dish of food. Our cats would watch just 3 feet away. It was amazing. They came nightly and would barely flinch when we came close. The skunk never sprayed.
When I lived in a small farming community in the mountains east of Salt Lake City, I discovered that the local skunks had been helping themselves to the cat food left on my back deck. so I placed the food dishes up on the picnic table, out of skunk reach. The next day I was sitting on my lawn swing enjoying the view of my lush vegetable garden, when a young skunk waddled past. He stopped, gave me the stink eye, and squeezed through a hole in the garden fence. The next day three rows of young vegetables were dug up, not eaten, just neatly layed out for my inspection. Taking the cue from the skunk mafia, I replaced the food dishes back on the deck, happy to share my largesse with the little gangsters.
About 5 yrs. ago we had a mother skunk & her 3 babies living under our bathroom & livingroom. I loved to watch them come out every night at dusk, so cute I thought & was delighted to have my new wild roommates! That was until the babies grew older & then they started to fight & then spray under the house! The smell was so bad it filled the whole house, people would come to the door & immediately comment on the terrible smell, it lasted for a yr.! We had to have someone come & live trap them one by one & take them to the country. It broke my heart to see them in those cages but they had to go, inspite of the smell I do miss them, my husband bought me a skunk puppet to always remember them by!
My sister’s dog looooves skunks. He thinks they taste great, so it isn’t suprising that he gets sprayed once every spring. One year he managed to get sprayed twice in one night! The first time on his way up to the house; the second on the way to the arena where he was spending the night. How did he smell the next day? WHOOOOO! Although I discovered that if you use baking soda and peroxide it helps. Also the chlorine removing shampoos work well too. (it helps if the dog has short fur)
The next summer a skunk tried to make its’ home in the crawl space under the house. One day the house smelled fine, the next WOW! it smelled terrible. You could taste it! Nothing like a heat wave and skunk! Despite airing out the house and fans in the crawl spaces there are times when I still smell the skunk.
It was the Fourth of July in 2005. After eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant, my family and I stopped home to get my dog to bring her to the fireworks show. We watched in a church parking lot. My dog started barking really loudly…I thought she was scared of the fireworks. I opened the door, rolled down the window, and shut it again. My dog was then hanging out the window and attempted to jump…she escaped out of my reach. She darted away, and I screamed, “Pepper!”
She darted to the side of the church…it was then that I realized that she was running after a skunk! She followed it behind a bush, where people gathered around and tried to get Pepper out. It was too late - she was sprayed. We had to leave right in the middle of the fireworks show, and took her home and hooked her up outside. We went inside and phoned a vet - he told us a recipe to make the terrible smell go away - the stench was all over the car, too.
We realized that we didn’t have one of the ingredients! We rushed to the pharmacy. My mom made a wrong turn. You didn’t think the Fourth of July could get any worse - but a police officer stopped us and slowed us down.
He bent over by the window and crinkled his nose. “What is that terrible smell?” he asked. My mom was embarrassed - we had the smell all over us. He let us off with a warning once my mom told him the story.
In the pharmacy, my mom and I were like a people-repellant. People eyed us, disgusted. It was pretty embarrassing.
When we got home, we had to bathe my dog in the concoction the vet gave us. It was very cold and wet and uncomfortable, and we didn’t get the smell completely away until about a week later.
That was a pretty skunky Fourth of July.
I lived in a small New York state town for a few years and noticed the skunks. I noticed them, in fact, every night at 6:00 when the volunteer fire department would set off their alarms. Evidently, the alarm would startle the skunks. So every single night the town would fill with that special skunk smell. I blamed the firemen.
When I was growing up in Manchester, Iowa, we raised lots of baby skunks in our neighborhood. I had not had direct with any for years, and then last summer I had a close encounter of an amazing kind. I was on my way to Waterloo on old highway 20. I saw a skunk in a field not far from the road. It appeared to be playing with some sort of container. I thought of it during the day and thought it odd that a nocturnal creature would be out and about during the day. Hours later, I returned on the same road. There on the shoulder of the road was the skunk with its head stuck in what appeared to be an olive jar. I drove home to get my husband who has become accustomed to my frequent animal rescues. We returned to the scene with tools which would hopefully release the terrorized animal. Nothing worked. We went to a nearby farmer and asked to borrow a tire iron. It was probable that even if we could break the jar, the jagged rim would remain around its neck. By this time the skunk had released every bit of “scent”. With one perfect strike with the tire iron, the skunk was free. The jar and the rim had broken; my surprised husband and a surprised animal stood and looked at each other. The skunk waddled off into the field. It was a miracle! WE LOVE SKUNKS!
We live in Connecticut and it was my teenage son’s job to walk our Old English Sheepdog every night before bed. He had the smelliest sneakers ever and one night as they returned from their walk, my son, who was 13 and afraid of skunks, was being followed by a mother skunk and 4 little ones. My son and his dog were running by the time they reached the driveway and the skunks were running too! They made it into the house and the skunks soon disappeared.
When I was in high school, my family added a room onto our house in the woods. One kitchen wall was temporarily a sheet of heavy duty plastic. My dad heard a sound in the middle of the night and discovered a skunk in the opening. It sprayed him and the entire kitchen. He got rid of the intruder and went back to bed. Mama was so pleased! The smell permeated throughout the house and settled on everything. Against our better judgement we kids went to school. We were the butt of a lot of insults and jokes. We should have stayed home.
We had a skunk for eight years.her name was Hepzibah.I named her after Miss Mamzell Hepzibah from the Pogo comics strip from years ago. Then I took a course in Hebrew and learned her name meant,”my delight is in her” and so it was.She was the most delightful creature a person could know.Each night at the same time she would do her dance up and down the hall,stamping and twirling.She slept with us all winter long in our bed and sometimes when I would fall asleep while watching TV she would climb along my body,stand on my shoulder and snort in my ear to wake me up.When she died we drove around listening to Tabla Rasa by Arvo Part,the saddest music for the saddest day.
For the first 21 years of my life I hated the smell of skunks like most everyone else. My friends think I am crazy but now I love the smell of skunks. Back in 1988, I returned home from a six month deployment on an aircraft carrier. For half a year, I was surrounded by odors like jet fuel, half burnt hydraulic oil, and a half dozen other industrial stenches. The first thing I did when I reached port in Norfolk, Virginia was rent a car and started eagerly driving the 1,000 miles toward central Illinois. It was wonderful finally being home. One of the first odors I smelled as I crossed into West Virginia was the powerful odor of a nearby skunk. I took a deep breath through my nose and realized after six months of industrial smells that I was overjoyed to be home again, and suddenly I realized I love the smell of skunks. Ever since I guess my brain associates the smell of skunks with the joy of a homecoming. I can’t take a big enough breath (through my nose) to satisfy me when I smell a skunk.
I am a veterinarian and nature lover in Ontario, Canada. One of my clients took in an orphaned wild male skunk kit as a pet, although I kind of recommended against it. She had him descented (by another vet, because I wouldn’t do it), and I would vaccinate him against rabies each year. Fortunately, he remained gentle all his life. He was so cute. When I visited my client’s house to vaccinate him, he would walk around the room stomping and showing his annoyance with me, then would “spray” us.
I once saw a skunk strolling along a sidewalk in downtown Montreal. Another time, a juvenile sauntered past me in Long Point, on Lake Erie. Of course, my main experiences with skunks has been dealing with the dogs and occasional cats who have been sprayed. And it REALLY stinks!!
My older brothers were always rescuing animals,one of which was a baby skunk. Because of this our neighbors always called upon them to remove various critters from the inground garbage receptacles. My eldest brother lifted the metal lid to find not a racoon as he’,d been told, but an angry skunk. Guuess the rest. After scrubbing him raw my mother sent him on to school in clean clothes.As the classroom heated up, so to did the aroma!My brother was sent home in disgrace from fifth grade.It was WWII, those were his only shoes.
When I was a little girl in northern Indiana (50 miles north of Ft Wayne), my wiser 2 years older sister held the paper sack while I shooshed a young skunk into it, getting sprayed in the process. We proudly took our prize catch home to present to our mom in the kitchen. She quickly sent us outside where we released the critter. Ever since that time almost 50 years ago, I have had a bond with skunks and their scent which most people find repulsive!
We were going to have a party and there was a skunk on the porch. My dad called a friend to live trap the skunk. He came over and caught the skunk, but it did spray. My dad had been watching and taking pictures,and he walked through the house and the smell was in the house. My dad also went to the store without changing his clothes. Every so often, while our party was going on, we could smell the skunk’s spray when the breeze came by. Our friend did release the skunk.
We had a dog who got sprayed twice and we did bathe her in tomato juice.
I live out in the country and two summers ago, my husband and I had a skunk living under one of our outbuildings. The only thing that was sprayed all summer long was a corner of our house next to the dog yard. I think the skunk was startled by the dogs the first time it came around that corner, but once it knew they were there, it never sprayed again. I saw it several times when I would take one of my dogs out at night and it never even gave us a second look. My husband was terrified that we would be sprayed, but I enjoyed having the skunk as a neighbor. That fall it moved on and we haven’t had a resident skunk since.
Great show! A few years ago, I was cleaning out the garage and came across a bag of clothes. I looked inside and there was our cat, a black and white long-hair, curled up inside…at least, that’s what I thought. Just before I pulled her out I realized, hey, you’re not Snoopy! A small striped skunk was fast asleep inside. I called animal control, but they weren’t interested unless it showed signs of rabies. So I waited until dusk and left a trail of cat food out the open garage door leading a few hundred feet from the house. Sure enough, peering out the window a few minutes later, we saw the skunk eating her way away from the house. I crept outside, closed the garage door, and took a cautious sniff of the clothes bag. Nothing. You could tell an animal had been sleeping in it, but as for a skunk, no olfactory sign at all.
In the mid 1960’s my family used to go tent camping by Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. The campground was an open field and skunks would occasionally walk down through it at night from the woods, en route to the lake. Once we woke up and saw a bulge moving slowly under the canvas tent floor, out, and on toward the lake. Since we had no food in there, I don’t know why the skunk decided to go under, not around our tent!
I worked at a property management company and people knew I loved animals. One day one of the engineers found a litter of skunk kits whose mother had been killed by a car. They called me to come help with them. I told them not to feed the kits milk, but they did anyway. I contacted a wildlife rehabber I knew and arranged to get the kits to her. I was shocked when she told me they could spray as kits. They were very cute.
I live in the country and care for a number of feral/semi-feral cats. Some of the them live in my garage, so I leave the door open a few inches so that they can get in and out. I came home from work one day and noticed an odd odor. I discovered a small skunk sleeping in a cat bed. The odor wasn’t that of a skunk that had sprayed, it just was a gamey odor. I could not get the skunk to leave the bed. It just stayed there staring at me. It stayed all night and through the next day before I was able to get it out the following evening by placing food outside the garage door. I think that it was sick as it seemed to have some trouble walking, dragging it’s rear legs. Obviously, I was concerned about rabies or some other neurological problem. After it left the garage, I closed the doors and did not see it again. I regularly see other skunks, but not the one that was in the garage. I threw the cat bed out. I enjoy watching the skunks in my yard, but the garage was a bit too close for my liking.
I live in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago and am very involved in ‘Alley Cat Allies’, working with feral cats. I am currently working with a family of feral cats (Mom & 4 offspring) who were born raised in a garage with a family of skunks. The young cats and skunks are the same age and are ‘pals’. Go to this site: http://thecrowsnestnoh.blogspot.com/2008/09/other-nations_22.html
for a picture of one of the skunks having dinner under our rear porch. The skunks are not aggressive toward me at all. In fact when I whistle for the cats to give them their evening meal, often a members of the skunk family will appear as well. Its quite a scene.
I loved watching your show tonight! I live near a patch of woods in upstate NY and this past summer I had five adult skunks come down into the little yard outside my window each night. They were eating the leftover bird seed and nuts that I throw out for the birds and squirrels every day. I am disabled and sit by my window with my camera all the time. I have photos and video of the skunks. One was my favorite. I would open the window and talk to it and it would come right over and get a walnut from me. It would stand up on it’s hind legs and beg. I haven’t seen any since winter started. But I look forward to seeing them again in the spring.
As a teenager, I found a baby skunk and made a pet of him, frequently keeping him in the house much to my mothers horror. He was not “fixed” but never offered to spray. My mom let him out one night for a little fresh air and a neighbor shot him.
Later, as a young graduate student, over 50 years ago, I fell heir to 5 babies. One of my professors was a prominent vet., Dr. J. K Northway of the King Ranch. I mentioned to him that I would like to have the skunks “de-scented”. He said he didn’t know anyone who would do it, but he would be happy to explain the details. He spent one lecture period explaining the necessary tools and procedure-said every Ag. Teacher needed to know how to do it!!
I managed to get a small pair of surgical scissors, a and small pair of surgical clamps and a cardboard box, which I cut the side out of and covered with glass. This allowed me to work on the skunks “under glass” and preclude an accident. With the assistance of a friend, we “did” 5 skunks, with great success-and no mishaps! I ultimately gave three of them away and kept two. They were the greatest pets I ever had!! Used a “sandbox” just like cats, rode with us in the car and walked the sidewalks of the college town (on leashes)catching June bugs and creating quite a sensation!
The only problem we encountered was that they are nocturnal by nature, and would frequently wake us during the night getting into stuff. Their favorite trick was to get into my shoes and dig the lining out!!
Unfortunately, they were not aware that they had lost their only means of defense and fell prey to a dog that jumped the fence while they were playing in my back yard. One that we had given away, lived for several years and reached a weight of about 15 pounds!
After a hard day of yard work (weed-whacking)I took a break for resting my over worked body and some dinner. As the darkness of the evening was well along and I needed to finish my yard clean up,I proceeded to haul out the few bags of yard refuse, out to the recycle bins. As I walked between the garage and fence of my yard, in total darkness I spotted what seemed to be a 2-3 ft.weed waving in the night’s gentle breeze, approximatley 10 ft.away. I first questioned my yard work skills,as to how in the world could I have possibly missed this weed with my trusty ole weedeater, in the full light of the day. As I stepped closer, still heading toward the alley, the supposed weed seemed to move back away from me ,backing into the corner of my wood pile. I stopped suddenly and paused, letting my eyes adjust more to the darkness, for I had entered into an area of my yard where the sensor lights don’t reach. Yes there before me stood Mr./Ms. Skunk waving his/her fluffed tail at me (the so called, tall weed blowing in the wind…..WAS NOT!!!) Without hesitation I did a 180, tripping over one of the lawn bags I was toting, falling flat on my face. Then I looked over my shoulder to see what the walking (stink weed’s) move was gonna be, now that I was at his/her level and mercy. I squinted in the darkness only to see the little polecat waddling away, in the opposite direction. Getting up and brushing myself off, I had a good chuckle to myself over what had just transpired. Living in close proximity to woods and a city park area, I’ve grown accustomed to plenty of visits from many of the furry creatures of whom share my neighborhood (racccoons,possum,feral cats and even deer) very rarely do I get to see skunk. That is why I thought I saw a bush in the night breeze and not Pepe Le Pew. Telling my Dad of this incident, he mentioned that he had once heard that it pains a skunk to emit it’s spray, so they tend to hold back their spritz unless it’s absolutely necessary for them to do so. Seeing the Nature program and the close up of how the tubes come out of the anal area of the skunk, gave a little credence to the old wive’s tale my Dad had passed on to me. This was about as close for me as I ever want to get to having to take a tomato juice bath.
Many years ago when our boys were small we had an encounter with a skunk. Our son came running into the house all excited because a skunk was in the road running from curb to curb. I went to see what was happening and discovered that a young skunk had gotten its head stuck inside one of those tapered yogurt cups. After watching it for a couple of minutes I decided that I would grab the cup and run. Skunk would scurry and hit the curb, turn and scurry in the opposite direction, hitting the opposite curb. I grabbed the cup and gave it a tug, moving away from the skunk as quickly as possible. I turned around to see where the skunk was. He had run in the opposite direction but had turned to see where I was. There we were in the middle of the street, looking at each other with what I would like to believe was a look of thanks on his little black and white face. The skunk sauntered off. I presume he never tried eating left over yogurt ever again.
Just before dusk as my daughter and I were leaving a state park we saw a mother skunk and her four babies walking close to the road. They were close enough for my daughter to get a good photograph of them, so I stopped the car. Having had a few close calls with skunks and being sprayec each time, I warned my daughter not to roll the window down but to shoot through the glass just in case. I also started to flash my lights to warn the oncoming cars. I didn’t want anything to harm that skunk family. The first car slowed down as it passed the mom and babies. The second car was close behind and was going very slow too. The mom skunk continued walking close to the road, but when the second car was passing her, she ran over to it and sprayed it then rand down to her babies and was gone. So much for skunks not protecting themselves (and their family) from moving cars.
Leaving a building in an office park that seemed far from any wilderness, I chose to cut behind a row of shrubs on the way to the the parking lot. Mid way and as I was raising one foot I heard a snake-like hiss and there where I had intended to place the foot was a young, striped skunk. I slowly backed away and nothing happened.
I was camping out in Hells Canyon and we had just turned in for bed. I heard someone down by the kitchen shooing away what I could only guess were skunks. I always sleep on my stomach with my elbows out to the side, and my elbows were not in my sleeping bag. As I started drifting to sleep I felt a light nibbling on my right elbow. I probably stirred a bit and then jerked my head up to see a little skunk bottom waddling away. Thankfully, I didn’t get sprayed! I found out the next morning that my friend had shooed away about 6 skunks in the kitchen that night.
I loved the show! I feel a bit like I’m cheating as my story about the tiny skunk who taught me how to fish is actually something I blogged on awhile back. Not to seem repetitive I’ll post the link…
http://aullori.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/my-fish-guru/
Living rural I have a lot more (Like when my pup was cleaned with pizza sauce and loved it because of the sinking pepperoni in the bathtub… I still swear cleaning a pup with Chef Boyardee pizza sauce is the method a pup likes best…) but just tossing up the story.
My dachshund rudy should be writing this…Our folly lasts for YEARS>…We live in San Diego, CA and at the edge of a canyon. Once the smell was so strong that i called the Fire department, because I thought that wires were burning. the fire department did not charge me because they said…”we do this all of the time”. During the past calendar year.. my beloved doxie…rudy has been the recipient of 4 direct hits…Everything…for months, including the humans in the house reeked…In fact, the scent seems to resurrect itself each time Rudy is wet!
Since doxies must sleep in the bed…( a dachshund rule). We live with the waning scent constantly. The only thing to ameliorate the scent is a
the concoction as follows : just as the show just said…peroxide/baking soda and dishwashing soap.. My dog is a REPEAT offender. good luck-all
Growing up in Pennsylvania, I never knew anyone had a skunk as a pet. They ran in your backyard and you knew enough to enjoy them but keep your distance. It took a visit to one of our exotic pet stores here in Florida where I now live to realize just how hooked you can get. You see those smally furry babies and you want to take them all home! Now with a house full of our own, we also volunteer with the Florida Skunk Rescue and assist with fostering and rehoming. To be owned and loved by one or several (in many cases) is an honor.
My husband and I enjoyed your show tonight. I would like to share a personal skunk tale, which happened Friday, Jan. 2, 1998.
We’d had guests for dinner on New Year’s Day and put the garbage out beside the deck before bedtime. By the way, we live in a rural area north of Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. I got up to go to work, letting my two little dogs, Mitzi and Casey, out for their morning constitutional. When I called them to come in a short while later they did not respond so I began to walk around the house wearing only my housecoat and slippers, (it was unusually balmy for that time of year), calling for them. As I got closer to the garbage bag I’d put outside the night before I noticed several holes in it. At first I thought my newly adopted Pomeranian, Casey, had gotten into it. My theory was blown very quickly when a full grown skunk wriggled out of the bag and came straight for me. I ran screaming to the front door leading onto the deck , which was still locked. The skunk kept coming for me and I kept running and screaming when suddenly Mitzi and Casey ran up to the deck. The skunk promptly turned and attacked Mitzi, who began to scream in pain. I took a quick assessment of the situation, deciding to save my “baby”, bent over, grabbed that skunk around the neck and squeezed until the skunk let go. With the skunk hanging from my hands by the neck I carried it around to the back door at which point my husband, Don, opened it. I begged him to do something; he was too shocked to be able to figure out what to do so he recommended I throw it away. I said I couldn’t because it would again either attack me or the dogs who were still outside. Shortly after they came round the corner again and Don let them into the house and closed the door. I then used up every bit of strength I had left and threw it away. It was not dead and later proceeded to attack both Don and our lab, Sheba, who carried the skunk by the neck until Don convinced her to drop it and come into the shed. Long story, short, we all needed rabies shots, our dogs got shots and were quarantined. The skunk was ultimately shot by the Game Warden. It tested positive for rabies.
Later that day at work, I received a dozen red roses with a note from Don which said, “To the bravest woman I know”. What I have to do to get roses!!
I have 3 Great Lakes skunk tales that I’ll enter in installments: 1st tale, on Lake Huron in Michigan - My parents had a very friendly golden retriever named Captain. Their bedroom opens onto the back deck but doesn’t have windows, so one oppressively hot summer they took to sleeping with the patio door open. Captain took to sleeping smack in front of the door. One night, they were roused from sleep by Captain’s “friend-making” snorts, and wondered what animal was outside the bedroom. Then came the startled yelps of pain and the unmistakable odor. Poor dog was foaming at the nose and mouth, tears streaming from his eyes. The vet was actually worried because it was such a high “dose,” and worse, was “taken” internally. Captain was laid up sick for three days, too weak to move. Two weeks later, his breath was still atrocious enough to set off my gag reflex, and he broke wind frequently, passing skunk stench from both ends. That lovable dog never did stop inviting every skunk he met to be his friend, often paying a very dear price. Mom figured he must have met enough friendly skunks somewhere along the way to make him decide it was worth the risk.
THE INVISIBLE RAIDERS vs. LAWN MAN
By Dennis Rathbourn
Comedian Tim Allen once said that men were only good for two things: auto repairs and lawn maintenance. Or at least I think that’s what he said. It could have been hauling luggage and lawn maintenance but one thing’s for sure: lawn maintenance was one of them. I’m not unlike millions of other men out there in that I love my lawn; in fact I worship it. But lately, something is ripping it apart during the night. I call them The Invisible Raiders.
They are invisible because I never see them, or it. I don’t hear them, or it, either. It all started a few years ago in the fall. Every year in late September or early October, after the summer lawn has faded and dried out, I reseed the lawn with a new seed mix composed of rye grass and fescue. It takes a few weeks of heavy watering and the usual warm Santa Ana winds we get here in Southern California to germinate those seeds. Then, the miracle takes place and my new green lawn comes up like gangbusters. It looks so good, I find myself just staring at it every morning over a cup of coffee and my one-a-day cigarette.
One morning last year I awoke, got out of bed, put on my slippers, went over to the window and raised the pull down shade, and… Holy Crap, my lawn was destroyed! Big chunks of it pulled out of mother earth and strewn about the backyard; my new lawn had been ruined by Godzilla. I opened the sliding glass door and ran out to our deck, down the steps to the patio, and out to the edge of what was a perfect lawn. I began to cry. It was like losing a child. And yet, there was hope.
The invisible raider hadn’t ruined the whole lawn, just parts of it. This called for an investigation. I ran back in the house and put on my bathrobe and my reading glasses. I was Sherlock Holmes. First order of business: find out where the invisible raider entered the yard. There are only two ways to get in my backyard, no, three. One entrance is from the garage, the other from the West side of the house and down the garden path; the third, of course, was from the house and out onto the deck and down the very steps that I had just traversed.
Second, examine the evidence. This was critical to my case. The monster had left a clue, but only when I examined the holes in the lawn did I find it. This monster liked to dig holes in the lawn but not just for the sake of digging. It was actually AFTER something in the ground. And the ground gave me my first clue. Being soft from so much watering, the impression of three toes or claws was visible in every hole. Some holes were deeper than others but to get to whatever the monster was seeking caused huge three and four inch clumps of my brand new lawn to be torn out and left nearby to die.
It sickened me. It also got mud all over my slippers and my wife was going to kill me if I got any of this on the living room carpet. I had to repair the damage immediately or my lawn would die. The monster had come in from the west side of the house and worked his way north. Thank God he only destroyed the north yard; the east side lawn was still intact. Must have got his fill of whatever he was digging for, I thought.
Later that morning over breakfast, I told my wife that I had come to the conclusion that this invisible raider must have four feet and three toes or claws. I wondered if it ate people, too.
“What do you think it is, honey?” I asked.
“Three toes, huh? It’s probably Amos next door. He walks on his knuckles, doesn’t he?”
“No”, I said, “it’s probably raccoons. Or big birds, they have three claws, too.”
Whatever it was, it liked to eat something underground. That’s it! The monster liked worms. Now all I had to do was erect a barricade to keep the monster out and think of some kind of deterrent to make it stay away. Ammonia works every time. I got an old towel, ammonia from underneath the sink, went out to the garage and grabbed my ladder. At dusk, I set up everything in anticipation of the monster’s return; placed the ladder at the narrow entryway on the west side of the house and soaked the towel with ammonia. Placing the towel so it faced the front entry to the backyard, I looked at my barricade with pride. No monster would dare sniff this stuff and still have the wherewithal to go any farther. My defenses were done. I went to bed that night knowing man had outsmarted the invaders.
Next morning, I got up, put on my slippers, the shade went up, and… Holy crap they struck again! This time they got to the east side lawn and just ripped it to shreds, clumps of newly grown grass all over the place. My God, these devils were merciless. Now what was I going to do? After repairing the east side lawn and shedding more tears, I was at my wits end. I went to bed that night feeling helpless. I had lost the battle. I could always just pour cement back there and make a giant barbecue out of it, put in a palapa and some tiki torches and re-create Puerto Vallarta.
But the next morning, they were gone. No new holes. No more digging, nothing. This last Spring, the lawn grew in and was gorgeous. It’s been twelve months now and everything is lovely. I forgot all about the invisible raiders. I repeated the same routine, planted new seed, watered them dutifully during the hot, windy Santa Ana days of October and November, then woke up one beautiful morning last month, raised the shade and… holy crap they’ve returned! You can imagine the horror that I felt. This was déjà vu all over again. I called my friends, I called the local nursery. I even called the SPCA. It wasn’t raccoons they said. It was (you’re not going to believe this) skunks. Yes, polecats. They eat grubs. They love grubs. They dig holes looking for them and eat them by the thousands every fall. Only way to keep them from tearing up my lawn was to put cayenne pepper everywhere.
So, that night, and ten dollars worth of cayenne pepper later, I put the orange colored stuff all over the place. It was a warm, fall evening, and in the middle of the night it came–skunk spray–that juice from the gland in their butt. Must have got a nose full of cayenne because he laid it on heavy and then left my wife and me to suffer all night with the windows closed and skunk stink in our nostrils. That did it. My wife said if I didn’t figure out how to keep the skunks out of the yard, she’d divorce me and move to Costa Rica.
Well, my wife didn’t move to Costa Rica although I think there are plenty of skunks there, too. I bought a ten pound bag of Bayer Advanced Grub Control ($32.99 retail) at the nursery that guarantees to kill grubs. Put in on heavy and watered it into the lawn big time. I also went on the Internet and found out that skunks are nocturnal (duh) and hate fluorescent light. Why didn’t I think of that before? So, I went to Home Depot, bought a light fixture, installed it above the barbecue on my deck railing and left the light on all night. And you know what? No more invisible raiders, no monsters, no skunks, nada (that’s Spanish for “nothing”). It’s December now and the little stinkers have not returned. My lawn is looking fabulous and I’m a happy boy. Now if I can only get rid of that crabgrass…
It was 25 years ago when I was caretaking a gold mine in a very remote area of northern California. I was living in a small trailer with my cat. A tiny spotted skunk had somehow found a way to enter my home through the cabinets. It sprayed my cat once, but my kitty then left it alone. I was hawling water from the creek and kept it in a 5 gallon bucket for my household water. The little skunk would drink out of that bucket, share the cat food dish, and caught all the mice in the cupboards my cat didn’t have access to. I’d wake up in the middle of the night seeing kitty and skunk cautiously and politely pass each other in the narrow aisle. But I knew better than to try to domesticate it. Finally after a week, I found someone with a live trap I could borrow. I baited it with some chicken, and caught my little friend. I slowly and calmly managed to put it the trunk of my car, drove 5 miles down the road, and let it free in a new location. It never sprayed me. I live in a different pretty remote area now. I have bird feeders up, and several years ago, noticed a striped skunk in the evening coming to eat the fallen sunflower seeds. So I have to admit that I throw a few pieces of cat kibble out there for her sometimes. I’m not trying to tame her at all or make her dependent on me. But we do have a friendship and mutual respect. She waddles off in to the brush when I come out, but never feels or acts threatened. And every spring, she brings her new offspring out to show me. I do love skunks; they are beautiful intelligent animals. I wish humankind had such a good defensive non-lethal weapon.
We have skunks on our property. We live in the country.
One day there were three baby skunks following each
other around in a circle in our yard. We could see them through the window. They did this for a long time
and they looked pretty comical. Supposedly
they could not see too well in the bright sunlight.
One night I went out when it was almost dark to feed
the barn cat and a skunk came tearing out of the barn
and sprayed me.It was really awful. I had a
very hard time getting rid of that smell. It was summer and I was wearing shorts and he just got my
legs and clothes not my face thank goodness but it
was an experience that made me want to stay in the house at night and feed the cat before dark.
I am sorry to write that I am NOT a fan of skunks. I have been out of my house since the first weekend in December, when 5 skunks decided to get out of the cold wind, and under two of my wind well covers instead. I have a photo of the skunks looking in the basement window, as I figured no one would believe me.
It’s a long story, but the window well cover had to be broken off, to get the skunks out. Unbelievably enough the window was broken in the process, and one got in my basement. The skunks left their spray in the window wells, and you can imagine what the one did that got in my basement. It has been a battle to get rid of the horrible smell.
We have used everything you can possibly read about for skunks, to get rid of the smell. Baking soda, peroxide, and detergent is the best mixture, but will only do so much, with such a large amount of spray. A powerful ozone machine has been used to get rid of the smell, but the smell still lingers even after that. The odor spread through the duct work, my clothes, furniture, wood, etc….the whole house. Worst of all, with my allergy to sulfur, it has been hard on my health. This has been a terrible mess, like nothing I have ever encountered.
It’s nice that some can enjoy them as pets, but right now I see them as my enemy. I have encountered skunks over the years, but this has been horrible. It’s amazing that Nature ran this special about skunks, at the same time that I a dealing with them.
I grew up in a rural area, and we had outdoor cats. One evening I was sitting outside playing with some of the cats when what I thought was a kitten crawled into my lap. I didn’t pay much attention until I realized that all the cats were backing away. I then noticed that the “kitten” was actually a young skunk! That’s when the mother skunk showed up. The tail was up, and she was stamping fiercely on the concrete porch. I took off like a shot, and made it into the house without getting sprayed. Some of the cats must have tried to attack the baby skunk after I made my escape, for the house reeked of that unmistakable odor for days.
I have a few skunk stories. When I was a child living on a farm, my father rescued a baby skunk whose mother was killed and he became our pet. His name was Stinky and he was never de-skunked, but he never sprayed either. He was perfectly comfortable around us. One day he got sick and died on the way to the vet. My dad buried him by the side of the road, crying. As an adult, working as a wildlife biologist in the woods at night, I had my light on a skunk who stood still watching me. I was afraid my light was hurting his eyes, so I turned it off. He then charged at me, so I quickly put the light back on. I realized with the light off, he suddenly could see me and perceived me as a threat. Light on, he didn’t see me any more. I quickly walked away. Now I’m a homeowner, and a female made herself a den under our house. Then her male courtier came around and we could hear and smell them squabbling. I did not want to call Animal Control for fear they’d harm the skunks or relocate them to an unsuitable location (e.g., in another skunk’s territory). So instead we evicted them. I placed cat food by the entrance and watched. When we saw both were safely outside (usually close to midnight), we went out in the dark and plugged up the hole. We had to repeat this with three different holes and it went on for weeks. Finally they were excluded and moved on, but not before I was able to witness the male’s courtship ritual, prancing around with a largely fluffed tail. One year later, the female returned and continued scratching at the wood that now blocks the hole she used as an entrance. What a good memory. I never got sprayed by her, but my mother’s dog did. During a family holiday dinner. I called a rehabilitation center to get the right formula to de-skunk him. The smell penetrated the house and yard for weeks. In spite of the smell, I love skunks. They are adorable and very clever.
(if the 1st one went thru, this is the) 2nd Great Lakes Skunk Tale - Lake Erie: We lived in a semi-rural community with a flood control pond and woods in our backyards. We shared the neighborhood with wildlife, peacefully, for the most part. Skunks were common, but their spray wasn’t, even though I often came across them in my yard at dusk. We often mistook them for cats, and sometimes our visitors would try to pet them, upon which I warned them about the “Stink Kitties.” One night, my 18-year-old son returned home from work as I was doing dishes. I saw him through the kitchen window as he casually walked up to the door, nothing unusual in his demeanor. So I was quite surprised just a second later as he shot his 6′2″ muscular frame through a barely-cracked door, slamming it shut behind him, his eyes wide as plates, face flushed and panicked. Then I smelled it, and said, “OHhhhh!” in realization, as my son moaned, “Did it get me? Did it get me?” No, it didn’t, but only because my son became the Incredible Shrinking Teen Flash moving at the speed of light the second he spotted a raised black & white tail next to the door steps. He said he often walked past that skunk previously on the way into the house, but it had always glanced at him then continued digging up insects, and this time it didn’t notice him until his hand was on the doorknob. You can bet that my son always made noise on his way up the walk after that, and wouldn’t go past a skunk until the skunk looked his way first.
My husband and I moved from Los Angeles County to Carlsbad, Calif. There is a piece of land across the street from our home that is protected wildlife area (meaning no building of homes or people trespassing. Being from the city, we heard of rattlesnakes, owls, and some racoons in the area but really hadn’t experieced any the first season. One morning my husband noticed some strange pieces of dug up lawn in our newly planted backyard. Then our cats seemed to be acting sort of funny, hiding under the cars in the garage. We didn’t think too much of it all until my husband walked in on a cute little baby skunk following its mom around our yard and then later sampling the cat’s meal. Our toy fox terrier Buddy, went out to make a last outdoor visit before retiring, when he happended upon the little skunk family and momma sprayed him and gave us all a very memorable night. Buddy is more careful now when he goes outside at night.
Ilive in southern Oregon and have a little chicken farm which seems to bring in the skunks. One night I heard a noise and went out to investigate. There in my flower bed was the cutest baby skunks, I did not see the mother and with the little ones just standing there I picked them up and petted them. One was very freindly and the other probably a male had attitude. I got some cute pictures holding them. I than watched them amble off into the night. They returned several nights in a row with their mother and was fun to watch. They were about 3 weeks old and did puff… I could smell it on my cloths afterwards…. Loved the program on pbs….
I saw a letter from my grandpa as he wrote to his first cousin when He was 10 years old”How many skunks did you get this year. I got 12. I got them pinned up in the corn crib”.I don’t know how my Grampa would catch them,but my dad told me if you can pick them up by the tail they cant spray you. If they get their hind legs on something they can hunch their back and blind you.
3rd Skunk Tale - Lake Ontario: I had an errand to run on unlit country roads one very blustery autumn night. I kept mistaking blowing leaves and trash for animals running into the road, frequently braking on the way to my destination and again as I returned homeward. The leaves and trash were just bouncing so strangely that night, not blowing across the road, but bounding and leaping, like when headlights flash off an animal’s fur as it’s running in the road, and all you see is that shimmery little patch that’s reflecting the light. I felt like a Nervous Nellie, braking for blowing leaves, so I told myself to get a grip, if I saw another silvery shimmer bouncing along the road, it was just a leaf, not animal fur, so there’d be no need to brake. That turned out to be tragic for a young skunk, and I still feel terrible about it. The white stripe on his tail was bounding along the road, looking just like each blowing leaf did in that strong, blustery wind. Only too late was I able to make out his silhouette and the full stripe along his back. By then, he was full in my headlights and it was too late to brake. I was too cowardly to even go back to put him out of his misery if needed, because I knew I’d never get the smell out of my car if I approached him. If it were any other animal, I would have put on the hazard lights and pulled over. I didn’t have the heater running, so there was no chance of the scent getting dispersed into the car, although when I arrived home and got out, there was a distinct odor emanating from the undercarriage. That odor remained for weeks, through a few car washes, but never seeped to the interior. But that poor little skunk! I’m heartbroken that I made the fatal decision to assume every silvery shimmer on the road was no more than a blowing leaf.
My husband and I used to play badminton with our two sons after supper in summer. Frequently at about dusk, just before we would quit, a mother skunk and her babies would emerge from under a shed on the property next to ours, squeeze through the fence, cross our yard, squeeze through another fence, and disappear into the woods to look for their supper. We would stand very still, and they would pass close to us, the mother skunk in the lead and her babies toddling along in a line behind her, looking like a scene from a Disney movie. One night we had already stopped play and were heading in when the skunk family came out. The boys were supposed to be going to take their bath, but when I remembered I had to go take the flag down off the front porch, they took the opportunity to steal outside behind me for one last dash around the yard. The mother skunk had chosen that night to turn and come along the front of our house instead of passing through the fence. When I stepped out onto the porch and saw her, I quickly stopped and my boys bump-bumped into my back. She at the same time saw me and stopped quickly, with her babies bump-bump-bumping into her tail!
1st encounter: I was asleep in bed and my husband had let the dog outside in the middle of the night. Well, when my husband let the dog back in I was awakened to an awful smell. I was wearing a mask for sleep apnea even. It didn’t smell skunk-like. My dog had gotten sprayed. He’s a Yorkie. I threw him in the tub and bathed him right away.
2nd experience: Since we had that experience above we’ve taken a flashlight out at night, holding the dog, looking to make sure the yard is clear. As I was walking towards the end of the yard and came around a bush there were 2 skunks looking right at me3-4 feet away. At first I was nervous but they didn’t seem that scared of me and just slowly scampered off. My dog didn’t bark and just watched. Normally my dog would be caring on!
We’ve had more than these encounters, but I’ll stop here. I have found that skunks are “cool”! I’m not as afraid as I used to be.
Thanks for the show about skunks. I learned things I didn’t know and truly enjoyed it.
We were living in San Clemente, California. It stayed warm enough there that usually we left a sliding glass door opened a few inches for the cat to go in and out. One winter my wife baked many small loaves of pumpkin bread to give to our relatives at the upcoming Christmas dinner. She wrapped them in plastic wrap, and left them stacked like cordwood in the floor. The next morning she was annoyed to find that our cat had clawed open three of the loaves, and nibbled off the ends. Disgustedly she tossed one of the nibbled loaves into the cat’s dish, muttering something about what a weird cat we had. Tellingly, Riffy looked up at her with an unmistakable “are-you-out-of-your-mind” look. Riffy was clearly apalled by the thought of eating pumpkin bread.
Christmas came. We unwrapped presents at home, and then hurriedly packed up and drove 50 miles north to spend the rest of the day with my wife’s family in Long Beach.
The following morning, about half an hour before dawn, I awoke to the sound of the cat rustling around in the left-over wrapping papers downstairs in the living room. I felt around with my foot, and discovered that our cat Riffy was soundly sleeping on the foot of the bed. That could mean only one thing - the pesky neighbor’s cat was downstairs. I roused myself, and stealthily headed down the stairs, intending the turn on the lights suddenly and then holler and generally scare the bejesus out of him. I reached the foot of the stairs, turned to face the living room, and flipped the switch. The “cat” was black, with attractive white racing stripes, and a huge fluffy tail. I was stunned - the bejesus totally scared out of me - there was a skunk in my living room, shuffling around under the Christmas tree. I feared the worst, but the little fellow just made a bee line back through the kitchen and through the sliding door, to the back yard. He didn’t leave the slightest hint of odor behind.
Many years ago, 1972 to 1976, I used to buy milk from Claravale Guernsey Farm, at that time, a family owned raw milk dairy in Monte Sereno, a small community between Los Gatos and Saratoga, near San Jose, CA.
Mr. and Mrs. Peak were the owners, and they had an honor system. Customers picked up raw milk dairy products, and wrote down what they took. At the end of the month, you added up your milk total, and went to the farmhouse to pay your bill. Their milk, and cream were wonderful.
While paying my bill one day, I struck up a conversation with Mrs. Peak. While we were talking, I felt a cat rubbing against the back of my right leg and reached down to pet it. Mrs. Peak told me to remain very still, because ‘Alice’ had decided to visit and say hello to me.
I looked down and was somewhat startled to see that Alice was a skunk, and it was she who was rubbing against my leg. Alice looked up at me with sparkling eyes. It was as if she was smiling at me.
Mrs. Peak slipped a small dog biscuit out the screen door and gave it to me so I could give Alice a little treat. Alice gladly accepted the treat and trotted off to her burrow beneath the outhouse.
Mrs. Peak explained that the outhouse had been filled in many years ago, and due to the shady location, they used the structure to store and age cheese. A few years earlier, Alice decided to burrow under the old outhouse and make that one of her homes. She had her babies there, and Mrs. Peak said it was always a springtime joy to see two to six baby skunks. Alice never smelled, unless she had to spray something in self defense.
By the way, the real terror in the Peaks’ barnyard were a couple of Muscovy ducks that would chase nearly anyone and nip at the back of your legs.
Other than that, all the ducks, geese, chickens, cats, dogs, cows, and Alice the skunk, lived harmoniously on Mr. and Mrs. Peak’s farm.
The program about skunks was great. My wife and I enjoyed it very much.
My sister and her husband live on a nice spread of land available to the occasional wild criter. One day a skunk they had known was hanging around was spotted by the kids ambling far across in the back field. My sister got a bb gun, but she was creeping so slowly foward the skunk would have been long gone before anything happened. But no one thought of leashing my dad’s feisty chihuaha-pomeranian mutt Lucky. Once old hardhead realized a ’stranger’ was in the field, he rocketed off to imminent doom. Once the skunk realized ‘knuckleheaded dog at high noon’ Lucky got a low-grade stun-shot — enough to stop drop and slink back where he came. (Lucky was always good at finding the stinkiest spot in an area) As usual, I administered the cleansing. Fortunately, despite my dad’s anxieties, the dosage was quite low. A soap and lemon juice bath, and a night in solitary sobered him up (and brought us much relief)
I really loved the spotted skunk’s handstand! I read about Mr. Dragoo’s ’special calling’ in Smithsonian a while back. Glad to finally see “Skunk Man” in action!
Several years ago, we moved to Rural Tennessee from Chicago, bring with us our completely Metropolitan cat. Several days after our arrival we were sitting on our front porch enjoying the evening when this big black and white no-it-wasn’t-a-cat cat waddled through the yard.
“Oh, look!” said our cat. “A new playmate!” and, before we could stop her, charged off the porch and full face into the spray. I jumped off the porch and ran into the yard to rescue the cat who was in convulsions.
First lesson of skunks: never assume there is just one of them. In the dark, I litarally tripped over a second skunk who responded by letting me have it from waist to knees.
We had already established contact with a local vet, so my wife rushed in the house, called him, and then we climbed in her car and rushed the cat to his clinic.
He gave the cat a full workup, transfusion, sponge bath with some anti stink additive, drops for the eyes and then said she should be kept overnight for observation. “Wait a minute,” I said, standing there in reeking pants and throughly soaked shirt where I had been holding the cat, “what do I do about me?”
He waved his hand and said, “Oh, wash yourself down in tomato juice.”
So it is now 11:00 at night and I’m standing in the check out line at a local grocery store with six #10 cans of tomato juice. There is a teen age girl at the cash register very delicately wrinking her nose. She looks at me and says “do you smell skunk?”, which turned the entire evening into high comedy.
In retrospect, two lessons learned: first, if you make an emergency visit to the vet, ride in the back of an open pick up truck and not the front seat your wife’s prized car. The interior stank for four months. Second: the stupid feline never did learn that stripped cats are not going to be her friend. She had three more encounters with them before she finally died.
On the plus side, we now have a family of skunks living under our front porch (”hey, smell this place. They must really like skunks here.”) In general, we leave them alone and they leave us alone, but we put out food and water and they will come and eat while we sit about ten feet away.
Hit a skunk with a car at night, car stunk for a week, though inside, smell was noticeable for 3 months
My dad brought home a skunk when I was a little girl. Unfortunately we kept it in a cage outside and it was stolen. Many, many years later I told my husband I wanted a pet skunk. I have had my sweet Lily Rose for two years now. I don’t know what life would be like without her. I have the utmost admiration for all the wonderful people like Deb from Skunk Haven and the everyone here in Florida with Florida Skunk Rescue. The education they provide is very valuable. People need to know that skunks are not vicious rabid animals, that most of the time they will run from you rather than spray. I do feel though that more needs to be said about Aspen Skunk Rabies Research and the money they are trying to raise through donations and iGive.com to one day hopefully have a rabies vaccine for our babies and make it so they can be legal in all States. No more innocent skunks should die because they mistaken bite the hand that feeds them. Please visit the Aspen Skunk Rabies Reseach website and donate today. If every skunk owner donated at least $1 for each skunk they owned I’m sure we would on our way to having this important research take place.
For the past month or so we had one to visit our chicken yard eating the eggs that we did not pick up and our dog covered with it’s spray. This past Saturday the 25th of Jan we had one out in our yard during the day (that not normal). At first we thought it was a baby because it was just laying on the ground (at the time we thought) cleaning itself. My mom took charge and went out to take a better look. It was hurt. She thought it got struck by a car or one of the many 18wheelers that come down the road. We called the vet to put it down because, we did not think it would recover. That night our front porch or the dog did not get sprayed and the chickens did not act up around dusk. Maybe our problem with a skunk is over with or until the next one finds the place.
This story happen in June, 2008 at dusk. My sister and I went on a walk about 7:30pm and we came up over a hill and saw a skunk running into the woods so we thought we would see what it was doing. Then we stoped at the edge of the woods and saw the skunk stop. Kellie sayed wonder what it is doing? Then we both had a flashlight and looked down and saw baby skunks there were about 4 little ones. One of the little ones came out then my sister said “Oh how cute” then she went to pet it. He turned aroud lift its tale and gased my sis. shoe. She ran of and said it sprayed me. I thought how come I can’t smell anything. Shortly after that I smelled it. So now that we see a skunk we will not follow it into the woods.
I was a Campground Host in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona Arizona. One night a camper came and began to set up camp when a skunk climbed into his brand new Cadillac. He had left the doors open while getting things out for his camp. The skunk was attracted to the chips and other goodies that the kids had been eating on the way to the campground. The man asked me (the camp host)to remove the skunk from the car. I told him that “I don’t do skunks” and to leave it alone and it will eventually leave and go on it’s way. But he decided to try to speed things up and got his fishing pole and started poking the skunk! Needless to say, it sprayed inside the car and then climbed up under the dash and sprayed again… Well, the end result was that the skunk did finally leave but the car had to be towed because it smelled so bad. I don’t know if the insurance paid for the car or not. But now the new Cadillac had become a “lemon” and had deprecieated a great deal!
Have had as many as seven skunks around shop, but two only show now. I opened shop door three inches to let swamp cooler air escape while working in office at night. I was at desk and happened to see something move out of corner of my eye. It was a half grown skunk that had crawled under the door and was checking out the shop. I froze while it sniffed my boots and checked out the trash can and every thing in the office before wandering back out into the shop and out side. I was not scared of it, but didn’t want to scare it so it sprayed the office.
About the same time another one got in the shop and I didn’t know it when I went home. The next day when I opened the door this skunk went running out. It had tried to dig it’s way out through the steel wall in eight places during the night leaving a pile of fiberglass insulatation at each point. Now I plan to add vents to the building so they can’t get in.
I feed about thirty stray cats and the skunks come eat with them. Once they got used to seeing me feed the cats they don’t bother to raise the tail when when I pour out the food. Some times they are waiting when I come out the door and are close enough I could reach out and touch them. But I don’t try. My friends say I should shoot them, but I say live and let live. They are fun to watch. Sometimes the cats and skunks get in to it a little and get sprayed which comes into the shop through the swamp cooler. Makes it a little rough to work until it clears. I looked into having one as a pet, but New Mexico will take them and kill them. Apparently it’s quite complicated and no vets here will touch them. Plus they tear up a lot of stuff. I have enough cats at home and at the shop so the only skunk pets will be the wild ones that come to dinner. According to the web they eat tons of insects/ mice for farmers saving crop damage.
I didn’t realize until I was doing reasearch on the net that skunks were banned in almost all states and people breed skunks. I assume for fur,as I never heard of skunk burgers.
I feel they are badly misunderstood and have a bad reputation for fast on the trigger. But like everything else they are trying to survive in this ever crowded world.
We drink the skunk juice!!! It has been in the Cree culture for centuries. We mix a little water with the stinky juice, and voila, you have natures version of Buckley’s, or was it always the other way around? Anyway, it really works and I wish some doctor or some biochemist would take another look at skunks for their medicinal properties. Everything in nature is not really bad for us, and in fact, we found our most important medicines and cures in most unusual places.
I have had many encounters with the little darlings, they are very personable. Last fall, one was sleeping in the dog house. It woke up and stretched and yawned. As I talked to it, it started to rub on the side of the house like a cat would, then it came over to me and watched me talking to it. Finally it went back into the doghouse and curled up to go to sleep again. What a wonderful experience!
There is a true story told in cartoons about a kid who nursed an injured skunk. See website http://www.geocities.com/wallyswoods and click on the May2008 story.
My dog got sprayed by a skunk once and instead of using tomato juice, there is a very simple remedy to neutralize the skunk smell. Mix 1 quart Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 teaspoon liquid shampoo, and 1/4 cup baking soda. I got my dog wet and applied the skunk smell remedy then rinsed him. Because the skunk smell oil is a thiol it did not dissolve the smell but only neutralized it.
I used to feed the skunks peanuts, and the skunks would come around every night, sometimes as many as 4 or 5. I would watch them from a distance of 8-10 feet away. One night, I went outside to watch the skunks and I had a sandwich in my hand. I got down on my haunches to better observe them and continued to munch on my sandwich. A big striped skunk can ambling over, placed his paws on my thighs and continued to finish my sandwich. My adrenalin was really going, by I let him finish his meal. What an experience!! I really love skunks.
I live in a rural area of New Mexico, between Espanola and Santa Fe, that is a favorite place for skunks. My first encounter was about 5 years ago when I was feeding a feral cat and her kittens. I realized by leaving the dry food out, I was also feeding a large skunk. Remedy was to remove the food. Next encounter was a year later when I acquired a puppy. Buddy was about 5 months old when he encountered his first skunk, which sprayed him and drove Buddy whimpering up the back steps. A smelly pup to be sure. He had numerous baths of vinegar before he was tolerable. Each year since, Buddy has had encounters with skunk in our yard. The outcome has been disasterous for Buddy and, unfortunately, fatal for the last two trespassers. I have found the skunk entrance to the yard and will be repairing to keep the curious skunks out and alive. We have been deterred on numerous walks due to encounters on the river road. The de-skunking formula of peroxide, baking soda, & liquid dish soap is the absolute best but rubber gloves are a must. Also, don’t wet your animal prior to applying the mixture; the oil in the musk breaks down better when the mixture is applied to a dry coat. It’s also a good idea to keep saline solution on hand if you have to rise your pets eyes. If your pet has been sprayed around its mouth or has killed the skunk, rinse as best as possible with water. I give my dog some fat free cottage cheese which helps settle his stomach. I think skunks are quite pretty but I prefer to watch from a distance. This may sound strange, but while watching your program Buddy looked up at the television, cocked his head as if he knew just what that black & white critter was and then looked over at me. I reminded him to “leave it!!”
The skunk man is actually my husband. He has always had an affectionate relationship with them. As a teenager, he and a buddy would go skunk hunting on spring and summer nights in the Kootenai River valley. They would take turns catching baby skunks by grabbing them by the tail and putting them into a cardboard box. They would then take them home, descent them and take them to Spokane to sell for pets. My husband, Randy, bought his first pick up with skunk money. They went out of business when Washington passed a law against keeping skunks as pets.
People still come to him to have their pet skunks descented. Once when our daughter was small, we went to the circus after a helper had accidentally punctured a scent gland on a skunk. The oil had covered my husband’s hand. After washing his hand in everything we could think of we were off to the circus. We thought we were fine, until the muggy evening started to bring out the odor. People around us started sniffing and looking for the skunk. The crowd decided that a skunk must have sprayed the grass on that spot. They decided in mass to move to the other side of the tent. We moved with them, and all agreed that the smell was much better over there.
When I was a little girl, we lived beside a vet and I played with their daughter. Someone had brought in a litter of baby skunks to have their stink glands removed. From that day, I had wanted a pet skunk, but settled for a kitten/cat. As an adult, I feed stray cats so I always have skunks, groundhogs, and opossums in our backyard. I do put out scraps of veggies for them. One day I was trying to go out my back door to feed the stray cat and I thought there was a cat in a brown bag we had on the porch. Cats like bags..right? I called “kitty” “kitty”..and saw the stripe on it’s back. Need less to say, I went back into the house. I learned that day skunks are not afraid of humans. Also, I have a bird feeder and I learned I had better bring in my clothes from the outside lines before dark or I’ll meet up with a skunk. They are beautiful little creatures and are welcome in my yard anytime.
When my husband was a teenager, back in the 60’s, he and his friends went to this small soda shop where all the “kids” got together. One day a car back fired outside and his friend had a bottle of skunk spray in his pocket. While all the other kids were outside checking out the car noise, he threw this “stinky” spray around the room and ran outside. When ever everyone returned inside, they all started yelling…..oh my gosh…a skunk is in there. I know…that was so bad of him. :-)
While volunteering at a NY prison on a hot summer evening, I saw an amazing “Skunk Tale.” Approaching the Visitors’ Center, I saw, through the window, several Corrections Officers backing up with their hands raised. Fearing some kind of breakout, I peaked carefully through a corner of the window. Standing in the middle of the room, stomping and turning slowly with tail raised, was the biggest skunk I’ve ever seen. At least a dozen guards and visitors were plastered against the walls. Hurrying to the Security Gate, I told a C.O. — who knew “all about Charlie, the legendary skunk.” Armed with “Twinkies” we returned to the scene — Charlie was gently encouraged out the open door by tossed bits of goodies. The doors quickly closed to loud cheers and shouting! Charlie waddled off to eat from the picnic trash another day.
A Michigan friend had a pet skunk (brown and white) named Petunia who often spent the evenings watching TV with her three children. At some point Petunia would go under their large ottoman. Petunia seemed to be spending more and more time under the ottoman. When the weekend came, the family move the ottoman to vacuum and discovered that Petunia had clawwed her way through the floor to the crawl space, and had been having adventures outside the house — always returning for snack time!
My family and I were just leaving for a camping trip to Maine. It was around 5:30 in the morning and we were on our way to meet my brother to convoy from NH to Moosehead lake.
We were about a 1/2 mile from home when I saw a skunk wandering aimlessly in the road, apparently arriving there from a recent garbage can meal. The skunk had a yogurt cup stuck on it’s head and could not see.
To my wife’s amazement, I stopped the car and started to get out. She said we are NOT riding 6 hours to Maine with you smelling like a skunk! But common sense lost out and I decided that I needed to save the skunk from being road kill. I stepped up to the skunk which had stopped when it heard me approach. I slowly reached down and grabbed the yogurt container and gave it a yank, the skunk looked straight into my eyes for about 2 seconds, then we both ran in opposite directions. All was good.
When growing up in a suburb of Detroit in the early sixties, my mother was good friends with two women that were of the Iroquois Nation. The elder of the women was over a hundred years old and I remember being at her house the day she got a birthday card from President Kennedy. She had a pet parakeet that could say some words in her native language such as ‘do da’ which I was told meant “grandmother”. They also kept a pet skunk; a wild one that had been tamed. I used to go over to their house and play with this skunk - it seemed gentle and friendly like a cat. I remember that it was pretty smart and able to reach up to the handle of the screen door to get in or out. It’s funny that I thought my experience was rather unique until watching that wonderful PBS show and reading all these comments!
Mexican Standoff: My first tale is of ambling down a trail on horseback in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. My horse heard a noise in the woods and stopped to listen. I followed his line of sight and discovered a skunk shuffling through the leaves and headed our way. We stayed very still while the little skunk, intent on keeping an appointment somewhere, emerged right in front of of us in the middle of the trail. He suddelnly realized that we were blocking his way, and stopped while we each tried to think of the best way out of the situation. After a minute, he made a detour around us through the woods and hurried on down the trail. I called back to some riders that he was coming and they stopped until he reached the point he was heading for and continued down a hill through the woods.
Tale #2: Years ago some friends of mine in Michigan bought and old farmhouse and began restoration. Unfortunately, some skunks moved in under the house, so the new homeowner decided to use a shotgun to scare them off. Not so good! The entire house was dosed from the scared skunks, and the couple’s wedding clothes were inside at the time. Not the cologne they were thinking of using, I am sure.
Tale #3: Some years back, my dog Sugar came in the house one day and went to sleep on the sofa. After a while I realized there was a horrible odor somehwere–it was so strong I did not at first realize that it was heavy duty skunk. Luckily, I found the same recipe given on the program in a homesteader’s magazine. IT WORKS! I have deskunked any number of dogs since. Our present dog Lucky got heavily sprayed the minute he arrived in Tennessee with my brother in law. I used this recipe and he slept in our room that very night fresh as a daisy.
Tale #4: I arrived with my daughter for an orthodontic appointment in the middle of a small city only to find the doors wide open and the entire office very fragrant with skunk. the receptionist told us that apparently a skunk was very close to the central A/C unit when it kicked on, scaring the poor critter and causing him to spray the air intake. Whew! Glad I didn’t have work there all day!
I have 2 skunk stories. My friend had a horse stable and her son often took his car there to work on it after dark. The one evening he was stumbling his way around the barn looking for the light switch and the cats kept getting under his feet, there were several barn cats at the time. Eventually he got the lights on and the cat he had been shoving aside with his foot turned out to be a skunk. It didn’t react to him other than just move when pushed and it sat under a chair for a while watching him, before it started eating the cat food from the bowl, along side the cats. Apparently it stayed in the barn for most of the summer, then disappeared for over a year, only to show up again two summers later.
My other tale is my story. I delivered papers in a small town, and we often had skunks crosss our path. One early morning I was running up a driveway only to notice a large skunk running up the driveway along side me. We looked at each other and he deaked under a motorhome and I cleared a hedge to the porch where I was headed. As I started back down the driveway at a run again, the skunk also reappeared, the two of us ran across the road together. He turned right and I turned left on the other side. My daughter in law was driving the car up the road to meet me and said that had been a big cat. I was telling her that it was a skunk and as I headed across a lawn to the next house I tripped over a skunk that was just sitting there. It got tangled up in my feet and we ended up in a heap at the bottom of the incline. For some reason it didn’t spray me, and it just took off when it was able to get up. About 10 minutes further down the road, I was now driving and i was goung to toss a paper on a porch, and standing on it was a huge skunk. As I pulled up along side it and rolled down my window it actually lifted it’s tail at me. Needless to say those people didn’t get their paper that night as I had enough of skunks for one evening.
My husband and I loved watching the show! Over 20 years ago Lovie, our brown and white skunk was a wonderful pet. I got her when she was about 6 weeks old - just weaned. I took a week off from work to start to adapt her to being awake days and sleeping nights. I was called in to work and brought her with me - a little brown and white striped fuzz ball curled up in my smock pocket. The whole store crowded around when I took her out to show her off!
When she grew up. she had a “nest” in the bathroom but had the run of the house when we were home.
We put baby locks on all the cabinet doors because she was always looking for food. We couldn’t have a wastebasket or plant on the floor because she would empty them looking for grubs in the dirt of the plants and anything edible in the trash. Sound inconvenient? It was a small price to pay for the loveable, curious, fun pet that she was!
On the show, we recognized so many actions; the stomp, the scoot back, the roll and crunch of eating hornets and especially the familiar waddle.
We live in Massachusetts and can no longer leaglly own a skunk. Maybe we’ll retire to Ohio!
When I was ten or eleven years old, I had the habit to set snap traps–sorry I didn’t know any different– anyway, this one day I had a very angary skunk in my trap. I asked my neighbor how I could get this skunk out of the trap without it spraying on me and he told me to cut a long willow pole with a forked end to push his tail down so that it wouldn’t spray so I found one about ten feet long. I proceeded to inch my way closer and I got to within twelve feet when it got me right between the eyes. Talk about burn. It felt like burning charcoal brikets placed in my eyes. To sum up, I took five baths,Shampoos and a rubdown with olive oil to no avail. I still smelt like a skunk. Sad to say, I can’t to this day smell a skunk. Thank you for a wonderful enjoyable program on skunks.
My brother and his wife have 4 cats and multiple self-feeders scattered throughout the house. They woke up one night to the sound of something eating from the feeder in the bedroom….. and it was not a kitty! They both wear glasses, so it was even more unnerving to hear strange crunching noises when you can’t see! Working up their courage, they flipped on the lights to reveal a full-grown skunk eating from their cat feeder. It nonchalantly looked over and proceeded to saunter to the only exit available at night - through the cat door into the garage….. at the other end of the house. It clearly knew exactly where to go! Now the cat door in the garage gets shut at night so there are no “new” kitties!!
My mother has many cats that are fed outside on her farm. Often wild animals will show up at night to share the food. Mom simply put out more food. An old overstuffed chair had been left out for quit some time, and several cats slept on it. Eventually we decided to take the chair to the dump. While loading it on the truck, we heard strange noises from inside the chair. I turned the chair on it’s side, and tore the fabric covering the bottom. To my surprise, a full grown striped skunk peeked through the tear. We gently took the chair off of the truck, and set it on the ground. I carefully pulled away more of the fabric, and moved back to allow the skunk to get out. After a few seconds, the largest raccoon I have ever seen, came out from the chair, and ran off in the pasture. Mom and I were both amazed that the two of them were in there together. A moment later, a full grown possum came out. We simply couldn’t believe it. When the skunk finally came out, I finished removing the fabric, to make sure there were no other animals inside. We loaded the chair and took it to the dump, but couldn’t help feeling guilty. Counting the cats, it had been “home” to four species.
I used to have a dog, her name was Bonita, now she has a home somewhere else with a loving owner.
My mom and step dad play ultimate Frisbee and one day we took our brown Labrador. Of course, I believe all dogs get into trouble eventually, but this story made anyone who listened to it laugh.
I was playing with one of my Best friends, Jenni. We were playing in sand on the side of the field. Somebody shouted to me since my step dad was in the bathroom and my mom was playing on the field. I looked up and saw that the person who shouted to me was Al, a fellow ultimate player. I got up and so did Jenni. Al told us that there was a skunk and my dog was off her leash. My dog was running straight for the skunk. I didn’t want to go too near the skunk because I hadn’t wanted to be sprayed. Jenni and I were calling for my dog after she disappeared into the trees. the skunk had run off somewhere, but still, I was sure it was in the area. Finally, after a while, Bonita showed up. I was about to pet her when a sharp, stinky smell rose up from her now sprayed pelt. My dog had been sprayed by a skunk. My mom had to run to the store and buy many cans of tomato juice. We bathed Bonita there at the fields. Obviously, she wasn’t going to get the smell completely off for at least two days. And a daily lesson for all is, if you have a curious dog, make sure it’s leash is stable. :)
I thoroughly enjoyed this PBS special on skunks! It was entertaining and very informative. I especially enjoyed the music choices associated with each segment of the show. Very well done! I am looking forward to more delightful nature programs. Thank you!
I loved the PBS show on skunks & I have had 2 skunks as pets. Dante named after Dante Gabriel Rossetti (the artist) & Bertie or Albert, after King Edward VII. They both required bottle feeding & they bonded very easily at that point. They both loved being indoors and felt very protected inside. Dante, my first skunk, was very demanding of my attention & even insisted that he sleep in my bed! He could even crawl his way up to get into bed. They each lived approximately 6-1/2 years, which is a short life span. They preferred cat food over dog food & Dante’s favorite food was fresh broccoli & Bertie preferred it cooked. Both of these skunks I bought & licensed here in Mich. This farm has long since been out of business so I would have to go to Ohio if I wanted another one. Maybe one day I will get another skunk.
One night, two skunks where (what seemed to be) fighting in front of my door. I decided to flick my front porch lights on & off and kick my door…..Big mistake. Needless to say, they left me a less than delightful gift on my front door and throughout my house.
I lived in the Trinity mountains in Northern California for a year in 1997. I had 2 manx kittens so I left cat food and water by the back sliding glass door for them because they loved to explore outside at night. Soon I saw a skunk eating the food and watched her through the glass. Every night at 11 pm she came back so I sat there one night on the steps with the food in front of me and she came without hesitation and ate at my feet. She had never raised her tail to me so I kept doing it. Ome night at midnight there was a knocking at on the slidiing glass door and it was a big old Racoon looking in and it ws clear it was asking for food as well. I opened the door and it moved down the steps I came out and fed it. So skunk at 11 and racoon at midnight. Then the skunk stopped coming. I waited a few nights and was sad she was gone. About 2 months later skunk came back with her 6 babies. Seeing them was so delightful to me and I rushed out the door with food for them. One of the babies played with my manx and they became great friends. I tried to see if I could get them to spray me. They seemed so used to me I wondered if they would if I scared them. So one night when they came I jumped out of the door and threw the food in front of me,and they all just came and ate ate my feet again.
I didn’t believe what people had told me about them being wild and spray people if they got close. They had accepted me and it was fantastic to have all 7 each night for dinner. They stayed about 20 minutes each night. All of the babies had different personalities from calm and loving to feisty and playful. The mother skunk was girly and sweet. Soon the racoon began comong and knocking as soon as the skunks had left.
I had just moved to the mountains to recover from an illness so the skunks and racoon made my recovery pleasant. City people don’t believe my skunk story, my new wife didn’t beleive it until we watched the skunk show tonight.
Thank you PBS for proving that I wasn’t telling a made up story.
I had to trap a new family of feral cats in my back yard last spring and put out a trap loaned to me overnight. The next morning I discovered that I had trapped a young skunk. None of us, kittens, cats, skunk or me, were happy about that! I solved my dilemma by carefully opening the trap door and inserting a flowerpot that was tall enough to hold it open for the skunk to get out. However I don’t think skunks have very good eyesight as it took him half an hour to find his way out. When I saw him leave, I was able to feed the kitties and begin my day.
My husband was pulling a trailer of horses to a trainer and was driving on a remote gravel road. Just ahead he saw a line of black and white wobbling across the road. When he got closer, he realized it was a mother striped skunk attempting to herd her litter of babies (kits?) from one side to the other. She would succeed in getting four or five across when one of them skittered back to the side they had come from to be with those who remained ‘uncrossed.’ This went on for over twenty minutes. She finally got all of them herded across after much effort and patience. My husband was totally charmed by them. On another occasion, I was still in bed waiting for my first cup of coffee that my husband got up to make for both of us when I heard a string of expletives coming from him. He had let the cats in for their breakfast and with them was a young skunk who had decided he/she needed breakfast as well. With some encouragement from a lightly pushed broom, he managed to convince the skunk to wait outside for his/her feline friends. Evidently cats and skunks get along rather well.
My dog cornered a mother skunk and four babies. My sisters-in-law had wanted a skunk for a pet, so my husband and father-in-law tried to catch the babies. Both of them were sprayed liberaly. When the vet was contacted about having them de-skunked, he said it was a waste of time at the moment unless we could wean them. They were just little babies. So the job of weaning them fell to me. Every evening I would approach the cage they were in, sure that this was going to be the time I got sprayed. I would stick my hand down in the cage with a low bowl of milk, grab one by the neck and stick his nose in the milk. While that one was licking the milk off his face, I’d grab the next one, and on until all were licking. Every evening I expected the worse. Finally they went on to eating solid food. I named them Eeny, Meenie, Miney, because there weren’t going to be no Moe. But one little skunk would rear back on his back legs and start patting the cage when he saw me coming, and I renamed him Thumper. Finally we called the Vet again, and this time he said he wouldn’t operate because it was dog days. I couldn’t set them free because they were just little babies, my husband wanted to shoot them, and I decided to put an ad in the paper. The phone rang every ten minutes it seemed. I gave them to the first three, and they would come get them with a large box and ask me to put them in the box. So I picked the little skunk up (facing me) and put it in the box. I hope all went well with them and their new owners, because they were so cute. I wished afterwards that I had kept Thumper.
I live in the city of Boston, and surprisingly we have an amazing variety of wildlife. We have had a skunk who owned the sidewalk. He would amble down it, making the rounds of the garbage cans. We have also had a mother with kits who would come up on the porch and beg cat food.
But the most amusing skunk story is the interaction between a skunk and a racoon on our back porch. The porch is next to the roof of our garage, and there are quite a few steps to the driveway. A skunk was dining on cat crunchies, and a racoon bound up the stairs & startled the skunk. The skunk became alarmed and began the tail-raise, and foot stamping & turning back and forth. I was watching from the screen door & thought “The only loser in this battle is me”. We have a squeeky screen door, so I opened it a crack, and the racoon leapt onto the railing & then to the garage roof. Instantly, the skunk calmed down and ambled, not ran, down the stairs as if nothing had happened. I’d love to have a pet skunk if it were permitted in my state.
As I was taking my morning walk down at the local beach several years ago, the gatekeeper said a skunk was running in and around the parking lot and beach area. Apparently, it’s head was stuck inside a yogurt plastic cup and could not see.
Other beachgoers thought it was funny, but I was concerned the skunk would be run over. Eventually I cornered the animal and threw my windbreaker over the it. I was able to yank the plastic and styrofoam cup and collar off of its head.
It seem blinded by the daylight but slowly ambled off. It glanced back at me and I like to think it was thanking me…
When I was about 6 or 7 years old we lived in Palos Verdes Estates, CA and there was just a few homes scattered about and lots of farming fields etc. I was playing at the local Jr high school and was all alone when I spotted a mother skunk with 3 tiny babies running along the edge of the playing field. Well being the tomboy I was and a serious catcher of all types of animals, I gave chase because I was thinking I could catch one of those tiny babies? (OK it was a stupid idea but I was only 6 or 7 at the time!) Anyway they ran down the edge of the sidewalk with me rite on their heels and when they got to a storm drain they ducked inside. I got to the storm drain opening and laid down to look inside to see if the babies were in there and all I saw was 4 butts coming straight at my face! I got a quadruple whammy rite in the face with my eyes wide open and I will tell you that nothing in my life has ever compared to the pain, it was like getting sprayed in the eyes with acid, I was in so much pain I didnt even notice the smell.
Well all I could do was head home which was only a few blocks but I kept having to stop because I had times where the pain was so intense in my eyes I actually couldnt see for short periods. When I finaly got home I know better than to just go in the house so I rang the doorbell. To this day (I am in my 40’s now) my parents love to tell the story of how when they opened the front door all they could see was this green stink cloud that resembled their daughter standing on the front porch. My poor dad had the duty of bathing me to try to get rid of the smell and they burned my clothes. When I was asked why on earth I gave chase to SKUNKS, I replied that I didnt know that tiny babies could spray. Well I can attest first hand that even when they are just a few ounces in size, they pack a fully loaded gun!!
In July, 2008 we walked in the house with arm fulls of camping gear after returning home from a 4 day camping trip. The entire house smelled like skunk! Two babies were trapped in the window well right next to the air intake for our central air conditioner. The trapper came and removed them and set a trap for the Mother. Two days later he caught her. She also stunk up the yard. We were relieved the problem had been resolved (so we thought). Four days later, our very friendly dog went to make friends with one in the fenced in yard and got sprayed in the face. She then proceded to try to rub it off on the sofa when she rushed in the house so we then had a stinky house yet again. This was the second time being sprayed in two years and we pray it is the last time. There was a big story about the increase in skunk population in our county at http://wwww.dailyherald.com
I was in a deep sleep one summer nite last year windows open, when I had a dream that I came upon a skunk den, when in fact I woke up and my whole room smelled of skunk. There were skunks in my neighbor yard spraying, needless to say I did not sleep in the room for the rest of the night and it took my Oreck air purifer 12 hrs. to rid my room and house of this odor. Skunk lovers come and keep all the skunks you want.
When I was a kid, everytime my mother smelled a skunk she would say, “There’s one of Jeanette’s Friends.” I grew up believing skunks were my friends. It was older that she explained why she said that. I have loved cats since before I could walk. When I was about 18 months old, and at my grandmother’s house, my family heard me calling “Kitty! Kitty!” They looked up to see I was chasing a skunk! My Uncle Don ran over and scooped me up and carried me away. Of course I was too young to remember the incident. So I repeated it when I was a teenager. I was calling a beautiful black persian, who whirled around when I got to close, and gave me a very indignant look. I backed away, apologizing. He snorted and stomped off. Since then I have met up with skunks several times. They only raise a stink when they feel cornered. I can relate to that!
Last winter our cats shared their litter boxes and their beds in the basemant with a skunk. We never smelled (her) and there was never any fights with the cats. I surprized her one day at the cat food dish and all she did was look up and then continue eating. Never once was she aggressive. When spring came I live trapped her and returned her to the wild. I often wished I had kept her! I have her pictures to keep me warm. She had alot of white on her and was very large. When I let her go in the bush about 7 miles from our farm she hung around for a long time…I often wonder how she is doing! I have alot of respect for skunks and especially their capacity for love……I miss her!
we have a skunk that lives under our house. mostly it has taken up residence in our vent system. on night while i was sitting on th couch i heard it scurring around in the vent and i peered down into the vent directly in front of the couch and it’s little nose appeared!!! he stinks up the house quite frequently around 3 am.
15 or 20 years ago, a co-worker asked if I would help her out and chaperon with her son’s scout troop. We were at a scout camp in Idyllwild, CA. Another chaperon and I with several scouts settled into one of the cabins. Setting up our sleeping bags on the bunks, I choose a lower bunk near the door.
Sometime in the night I woke to what I thought was my cat walking across my legs. I kicked my leg to shoo my cat off. My eyes snapped open when I realized I wasn’t at home. I laid there for a few minutes, listening and trying to think what would be small and nocturnal. Couldn’t be a raccoon, too light, squirrels are diurnal. Having a supposition, I got my flashlight out and looked around. Sure enough, a few bunks away was a small skunk.
I got up, opened the door and proceeded to try to herd the little creature out with my flashlight. I heard a few of the boys whisper, “Skunk”. I shushed them and succeeded in getting the skunk out and closed the door. The other chaperon never woke up.
The next morning, the episode circulated around the camp faster that stink on the wind. The skunk must have been sleeping in an old wood stove in the cabin. It didn’t spray and the cabin didn’t have any odor to hint to the fact we were intruding on the little guy’s territory. We were known as the Skunks for the rest of the weekend.
It started when I was 7 going on 8 years of age my favorite animal changed almost everyday. When I got annoyed of finding a favorite animal, I had a wave of change and started to like skunks, I did a little research to learn about this cat-size creature and learn about its characteristics. I learned a lot I also watched a lot of informal tv shows. Going to a little into the future my 11th birthday I got my first skunk doll. I was speechless with happiness and my love for skunks grew tremendously. I was so thrilled that day. Now in the persent day I’m still keeping my love for skunk straight to the heart because I have been tracking down my roots and I found out I’m a Native American from P.R. and they had animal totems so I put two and two together I figured out my totem is a skunk. I’m gentle but fearless. My love is so strong I’m going to physically transform myself to a skunk or as close to a skunk as possible just like Dennis Avner a.k.a Stalking Cat. I’m still to young to get a tattoo but in three more years I will be old enough for the tattoos and piercings for my human to skunk transformation.
my dad and mom was driveing at by the mall and then they saw a mom and babaies skunks and my dad got out of the car and picked up the babies to help them get across the street. the mom was already there.
This planet will be better off without… people. That’s right, PEOPLE need to check out, and leave the skunks, the big cats, and the antelope alone. You remember the antelope, right? I mean as in: “Where the deer and the antelope play”? - when was the last time the west U.S. had antelope? And did I tell you that wild horses are shot on OUR land (government land) because ranchers using OUR land to feed their cattle want to shoot wild horses to “protect the grasses”…. Skunks in the yard here in NH eat grubs out of the lawn, they eat bugs, they eat the same kind of food that a bird might eat (pine nuts, berries, etc.) One living nearby approached and startled me. I knew about the spray habits of startled skunks, and I withdrew. I regret it, because I think I broke the little fella’s heart, he was killed in the road inside a week. Everyday I meet more stupid people and we are steadily wiping out our planet and every living thing on it. It is a BEAUTIFUL planet, and we are the only species indifferently destroying it. I hope God invents a virus to just kill humans.
I was a firefighter at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California in the early 90’s. We had just got back from an emergency on a warm summer night when we found a skunk in the garage where we park the fire trucks. The skunk went behind our coke machine and the Shift Captain told us to leave it alone and it will leave. Well, one of the guys decided to poke a stick at it behind the coke machine and it sprayed. The firehouse stunk for weeks that followed and it’s a story my young daughter enjoys to hear.
Good morning! I just got home from vacation and was thrilled that I had taped the skunk program. I loved it! Very informative. I don’t really have a skunk “tale” but would like to understand why I roll down my car window to get a better whiff when I drive past a skunk that has been hit by a car. I LIKE the smell. I have never been near someone or something that has been sprayed.
I’m not sure if things might be different in that case or not. Does anyone know why I might like this odor? Thanks! Keep up the EXCELLENT nature programs.
A few years back, I lived in Winfield, IL, about 30 miles west of Chicago. An area where nature preserves abound. We would get wildlife around from deer to coyote to oppossum to raccoon to…skunks. We had my dog and my sister’s dog…both Silky Terriers. My dog, Suki, is a natural hunter; if we got a field mouse inside, it was soon dead. She’s a great mouser!
However, one night she and Danni, my sister’s dog, were in the backyard and we heard this horrible barking, like a distress call. Danni, the smart one, came running up to the back door, whimpering. She had definitely been sprayed, though not badly. Suki, on the other hand, was barking nonstop. A skunk was on the other side of the chainlink fence, spraying Suki over and over, full force in the face. Suki had her nose through the fence, trying to get at the skunk, seemingly unmindful of the strong spray.
I had come prepared but almost threw up as I dropped a beach towel over my crazy dog. I held her at arm’s length and immediately put her in the bathtub and closed the door! I had two quarts of homemade tomato juice and as soon as I could take a deep enough breath to hold, I went back in the bathroom and poured both quarts on Suki. I rinsed her off, then bathed her…twice! She still smelled so she and Danni, who my daughter had already bathed, spent the night in the bathroom with the window open.
Early the next morning, I contacted the groomer at the nearest Petco store who told me I could use a feminine bath product to bathe her in. Then I brought Suki into the groomer who had a big bottle of de-skunk solution to bathe her in. I could still smell a bit of the skunk on her but she was allowed to live with the rest of us.
However, not thinking about the spray being on the grass, I let the dogs out into the backyard. Suki made a bee line for the sprayed area. I could have killed her! I called the groomer who laughed and told me to bring her back in. There was no charge for the additonal de-skunking but I had to buy a large bottle of the solution. I was happy to do so!
It was several weeks before the smell was completely gone from Suki’s head. Every time she got her head wet, we could smell the skunk; not as bad but still there!
We deduced that Suki definitely still had a wild side to her; she’s fearless. She’ll be 13 this year and still as adventurous as ever!
When I was a kid, about 10 years old, I was walking down Sprout Brook in Paramus, NJ on the Ridgewood Country Club side of the brook. When I noticed movement alongside the bank. As I got closer I saw a big female skunk caught in a leg trap. She was super stressed out as she tried to free her right foreleg. As I watched her trying to free herself I began trying to think of a way to free her without getting sprayed. I decided to jump on her, hold her tail down and push the spring on the trap with my knee. This is what I did except that I pushed her head into the ground with my left hand, held her tail down with my right hand, and began pushing the trap spring down with my knee while she was squirming all over. However, just as I got her leg free, she freed her tail. The tail whisked up across my face and I was looking at her sphincter barely an inch away; alls I did was close my eyes. She let me have it, full blast, the scent was dripping down my face. I released her at that instant and she took off like a bat out of hell. I wiped my face and neck with my coat sleeve and walked back home. My mother washed my clothes and I took along bath. After that I guess I’m used to skunk smell because it does not bother me. I remembered this experience after watching your Nature show on skunks. Like Mr. Dagoo says he was used to the skunk scent where he would never even notice it.
Remember spring is almost here and you will be smelling alot more skunk with mating season being around the corner. Sometimes the smell is a hint of where they maybe nesting so be kind when relocating a mom and think of kits she might leave behind.
I WOULD AGREE WITH NUMBER 158 BECAUSE YES SPRING IS ALMOST HERE AND YOU WILL BE SMELLING ALOT OF THAT STINKY STUFF AND YES I WOULD KEEP EYE OUT WHERE EVER YOU ARE BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE THE SKUNK CAN BE AND WHAT IT WILL DO TO MAKE YOUR LIFE SO MISSZY AND THEN YOU WILL BE VERY IS TO GET NOTICE WHEN YOU ARE OUT SOMEWHERE!
Skunks are cute but smelly. when i was five I went into the woods and saw a”smelly cat” and I went up to it because I love cats. so it starts stamping its feet and I think awesome it wants to play so I come closer and than it lifts its tail. So i’m laughing having a good time than the skunk turns its back on me and I think its leaving so i get closer and notice its head turning into a “U” position. So here i am onthe floor looking straight at the skunk’s BUTT. Than the moment , the yellow,and extremely stinky fluid fly’s right directly into my nose and I scream, nearly blind i run directly into the skunk and it sprays me again this time in the eyes. so i waited there crying,blind,and extremely stinky for nearly two full hours.
Let me tell you the smell was there for about 6 months after numerous tomato baths! eeeeewwwwww!!!!
i love skunks, because well I live in skunk city New york I have been sprayed before. 1 time when i was 7 i went in my neighbors yard because I seen a cat and I went over and ran so fast I tripped on the curb,and the skunk startled and nervous heard me fall and whipped up its tail and i was freaking out because the smell and also because the spray was a fine stream,a direct hit in
my mouth I literally threw up right on the spot and the skunk afraid at me sprayed me twice more in the eyes. I WAS BLIND AND STUNK TO HIGH HEAVENS!!!! As my momma said never play with a skunk, because she was sprayed and recognized the smell as I walked in the door!
We were at a campground at Greer, AZ where a number of campers and skunks were peacefully coexisting by observing the rule “you don’t bother me and I won’t bother you.” After supper one evening my husband was visiting our camp neighbors and I was sitting in our tent on top of a sleeping bag. I thought about zipping up the tent flap but before I could do so, in stepped a skunk. Too late to try to scare it away, so I froze in place. It sniffed at a box of cooking pans, then started sniffing its way down the edge of the sleeping bag I was sitting on until it got to my hand. Its whiskers tickled, and I thought “Horrors, we’ll have to get rid of the sleeping bag - WE’LL HAVE TO GET RID OF ME!” But thank God nothing happened, and it sniffed its way down the other sleeping bag and out the tent door. The neighbors not only told us about tomato juice but also the danger of rabies, so I was very, very fortunate.
Hey Christine (#155), I actually really like the smell of skunk musk too! I know this is really odd but not unheard of. I have been very close to the smell when a skunk sprayed outside a dorm I was living in once, and the very fresh, up close and personal smell is an extremely intense, overpowering and different experience from the whiff you get on the breeze. I can’t say that’s exactly pleasant, but there is still something intriguing about it, and I do like the basic notes in the odor. The chemicals in the spray are, after all, some of the same ones found in garlic, onions, and coffee, all of which I like.
Once when I was about 10 or so my mom laid out crunchies right outside the front door for our black and white cat Boots. One evening I heard crunching through the front door and thought maybe the cat wanted in. So I opened it and seeing a dark figure about six inches from the step said “Oh hi Boots…” When I suddenly realized that this was NOT Boots I slammed the front door and hurried to tell my parents!
About 2 years ago my boyfriend was in the woods cutting firewood .HE came home and told me that he had found 5 baby skunk kits .They were all by themselfs and there was no mother around ..So we decided to watch them for a couple of days ,still no mom .Come to find out there mom was hit by a car and killed .We then decided to bring them home because i’m a big animal lover and believe everything brought into the world devises a fighting change in life ..When we got home with them we decided to take them to a man who helps with abandon wild animals …I couldn’t call DNR
because here they would destroy them..They where to small to look after themselfs and they would have died .I then decided to keep one .I named her sweetie
and she is a wonderful pet .She lives in my home with 3 dogs and are pet cat ..They all get along great..I did have to get a permit to keep her and i did have her desented…She’s very happy and has a really good
life ..And her brothers and sister are doing well ..Her sister comes to visit once in awhile ..She has a very special place in my heart ..
skunks are so stinky p.u Here’s another stinky story! Haha. One time I am walking in the woods similar to my other one this time at night! I see a whole family of small black and white critters so I go up to the baby , pull its tail and this really I mean reaaly pisses off the mother so The sphincters tighten and BAMMM!!!! a direct face load and the baby gets angry to so I fall and the baby claws me to the ground and I fall and about 6-7 others jump on me and I am screaming and this scares the babies! I feel a warm little buty touch my eye and I open it very quickly to receive a mist in my eyes and like a chain reaction it scares the other ones so I was sprayed about 8 times!!!!! The smell let me tell you was SO BAD I kept vommitting all night and the next day I went to the woods to try to get revenge instead I got SPRAYED again!!! So the smell was on for the rest of the year and I had to live in a deserted home for a week ! whenever my parents came over they would wear face masks! eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww! It stunk so bad i could barely breathe the smell was like 8 rotten eggs shoved up your nose poop thrown on your face, Burning rubber and the other grossest substances on the planet!
I was hiking the Grand Canyon with my son, his school chum and his friend’s father. Our hike was during the summer, so to avoid the heat we began our hikes at 4AM. On our trip out to the North Rim, we stayed at Cottonwood Camp, the halfway point. We had stored our food off the ground using Park Service provided metal poles. So in the dark, with flashlights in our mouths, we spread the food on a tarp to split up the load. Well, all of a sudden, a skunk ran between my legs, grabbed our loaf of bread and took off! Since that was our only bread, and was intended to provide us sandwiches for lunch, I chased after that darned skunk! As I ran after him with my flashlight, I scooped up small rocks. As I got close, the skunk would stop and lift his tail. Well, I began pelting him with those rocks! He did’t like the pelting, so he ran off still holding onto that loaf of bread.. We, the skunk and I repeated this process three or four more times, when finally the skunk felt it was too painful to keep the bread and abandoned it.. The sandwiches tasted even better than normal later that day because of the efforts to save it!
When I was about 3 years old I was outside with my twin sister and little brother, when I saw a huge skunk about 2 feet away near the bushes. They were walking right towards it. I tried to warn them, but I didn’t know what the animal was called. They both got sprayed and started crying. I didn’t get sprayed. My mom gave them tomato juice baths.
This summer my family started to notice young skunks in the yard. Soon we discovered they were living under the house because my brother found a strange hole by the house and squirted a hose in it. Out ran 7 very young skunks! They were running all over the yard. My mom paid animal control people to come and trap them to take them away.
Hey all you that haven’t been sprayed i have a homemade way to make it feel like you have!
1. mix burnt rubber, rotten eggs,and all other smelly things in house.
2.pour this on yourself
3. get a bottle of shampoo and pour it in your eyes!
wow it works!!!!! it hurt so much!!!!! and smelled awful!!!
When i was five i went into the woods with 3 friends. we saw some “cats” we chased them. They eventually stopped and reared their heads my friends and i each picked one up. we all got sprayed but we held on too them. We each brought them in our houses and they sprayed our parents. the skunk i held sprayed me 6 times and the last two times it sprayed my face. my friends parents also got sprayed. we dint have tomato juice and the ppl at the store wouldnt let us in so we smelled for 2 months never again will i pick up a skunk
On a 3 week camping trip around the Grand Canyon, we continually had nocturnal problems with racoons getting into heavy box of food, stored outside, against the tent wall. Dad would tell me to ” beat on the side of the tent . . beat on the side of the tent”__meanwhile, he would go turn the car lights onto the animals to scare them off. We were on our 5th episode of these nocturnal visits, and once again I heard Dad say “beat on the side of the tent!” . . .a cautious, quiet .. yet severe tone over took his voice when he said “do NOT beat on the side of the tent. Do NOT!!” The car lights went off. This time there were not racoons in the food box. By my head, outside in the food box were 2 skunks. We laid quietly. For a long time, til THE SKUNKS decided they’d go on, themselves.
One time on a camping trip and was sleeping with the tent a crack open and at 1:00 a.m i felt a fuzzy thing run across my face and i began kicking it and punching it than. a HORRIBLE ,PUTRID,STINGING smell ran across my eye and I screamed and the tent was not open. so i kept getting sprayed over and over!! i kept kicking and screaming and the smell kept getting worst and worst! i also kept vomting and i counted the times i was sprayed 39 times, the smell STUNK so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!
skunks, LOL the smell is terrible james!haha
skunks smell! One time I was in my cabin and this furry thing went under the couch and I felt it and kicked it! then this HORRIBLE, PUTRID odor rose and i looked under the couch and boom! 1..2..3 the smell was stuck in my mouth,my eyes and my my nostrils i began screaming and boom again the smell was so unbearable i fell to the floor and when i woke up i ran from the area and screamed ” help i have been skunked!”
about a month ago about 2 at night me and my buddy were walking around are division and he noticed there was a skunk. insted of doing the smart thing and walkng away we desided to see how bad we would smell if we were to get sprayed. we both picked up some stones and threw it at it, so it came charging after us. we just let him come to us while we picked up more rocks and waited until it was anleast 3-4 feet away from us. it dashed beside me as i though and BAM! sprayed my armpit. and i mean my armpit including hair and skin ( we were both working out earlyer and we were wearing muscle shirts). my friend trows a rock at it and got sprayed. near the chest area or something. i didnt picture it being so bad and i couldnt move thinging “AHHH!” at the same time we both turned around and started walking back but the skunk followed us so we turned around and started yellin “shoo” and it sprayed us again. we bolted home and i filled the kiddy pool with water for us. as we bathed in our underwear we saw lights turning on in other peoples houses. the next day we staying in the pool and the tub full of water but we could tell it wasnt working. i went on the internet and looked up what removes skunk smell, and water apparently makes it harder to get out. we also found out tomato juice kills skunk smell so ive been bathing in that 3 hours a day since. i still stink a lil too. i even shaved my armpit thinking i would lose some stink. Now no girl will come near us in awhile thats for sure.
I have had Siberian Huskies all my life and one of them was PARTICULARLY adventuresome and liked to CHASE things. Her name was Joelle and her twin brother was Gabriel. Think of Felix and Oscar with these two. Well, when they were babies, they got sprayed by a skunk and you’d THINK they’d never forget it. My mom would say “Stay away from the pretty kitties with the black and white stripe!” to them as a joke. Well, year after year, we’d see Gabriel running away as fast as he could away from the skunk, and Joelle getting into some stinky altercations. She got schpritzed about four times - she just could not resist playing with the skunkus despite its funkus! hahhaha! Gabriel was like COUNT ME OUT!
Oh yeh - if anyone is a child of the 80’s you may remember this game from like 1982 called Hook Line and Stinker - that thing REALLY smelled like skunk
Produced by 
©2009 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Produced by THIRTEEN WNET New York ©2009 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Major corporate support for Nature is provided by SC Johnson, Canon, CPB.
01/08/2009 :: 08:41:27 PM
Betty Atkins Says:
I grew up on a farm. My dad often brought home orphaned animal babies. One was a skunk. Mama allowed the skunk only because Daddy had ‘de-skunked’ it. Skunky was my pet for over a year, when one day a stray dog challenged our family dog. Skunky immediately got between them and sprayed the intruder in the face. Instead of removing his scent glands, Daddy had just neutered him!