skunks

There are a lot of skunks in our part of the world.  Sandy has now managed to get herself sprayed FOUR times.  Wonderful.  That's got to be some kind of record.  If anyone needs any tips for getting skunk out of dog fur, let me know.  :-)

Anyway, our last two interactions with skunks came courtesy of Joseph's squirrel trap.  The first was a week and a half ago.  Joseph left the trap open all night long, and sure enough, a curious skunk wandered in and got himself trapped.  I was ready to call animal control, but we did some internet research and figured we could get rid of it ourselves.  Ben sneaked up on the cage, holding a big canvas tarp in front of him, and carefully covered the trap with the tarp.  Then Joseph, covered in a big jacket of Ben's and an airsoft mask, carefully propped open the door to the cage.  After only a few minutes, out trundled our skunk!  Apparently it can take several hours for the skunk to get the nerve to leave the covered trap, but this guy apparently wanted to go home.

Here is Joseph opening the trap:

And here is the skunk heading for the hills:

Sadly, that was not the last of the skunk/trap encounters.  Last Tuesday night Joseph accidentally left the trap open again, trapped probably the exact same skunk, and the next morning Sandy got out and made a beeline for the trap where she naturally got sprayed right in the face.  Ugh.  I didn't video that one.  :-)

The skunk smell has dissipated from the yard, but Sandy will have a faint odor of skunk for probably several more weeks.  Fun stuff.