Skunked, Again~ The Sequel

Today was one of those slow days. I had a bad day between my legs “shouting” and my blood pressure deciding to plummet for no real reason I could figure out. After passing out twice when I got up to do ordinary things, I checked my blood pressure with a hand-held model (the best way to do it). 100/60. Of course by the time my pea head figured out that I had low pressure, yes, I had taken my blood pressure medications. So, I drank lots of fluids trapped flat on my back during the evening.

About mid-evening I asked my hubby if he smelt something burning? “Nope...do YOU?” I answered not exactly, but something smelled really bad in the house. I'm not the best chef but I hadn't cooked and burnt anything today.... We sprayed 'Febreze', which helped for about ten minutes, then it began to reek again. Frax started acting like his nose was in distress too. “Bill, what in the world is this? It's all over the entire house!” We sat there rubbing Fraxie's ears to comfort him...Frax's big schnoz was watering from the terrible odor! Suddenly it came to me~ “Bill, we've been SKUNKED again!” “Oh lordy! your right, I don't know why I didn't pick up on that right away!” he exclaimed with dismay.

We got the portable fans going and frantically Fabrezed the house all over again. It took hours to feel normal in the house...and we were all exhausted from spraying. fanning and breathing the vile odor. We had to turn off the central heat and air...because it was the source of the odor in the house from the skunk. Opening windows wouldn't have helped~ it would have worsened the misery. Even the resident Barred Owl couple sounded like they were choking on the fumes way up in their pine tree in the back. They might have had a run in with the offending skunk...

Next day, it was at though nothing had happened. Frax was scared to go outside, but with encouragement, (shoving his little round behind out the door!) he finally got over his fear of skunk in the back, deciding that his bladder took precedence over any skunks lurking there. I reassured him they were nocturnal, so he was safe in the daytime!

Bill and I couldn't understand why the odor was so bad. We've had faint whiffs of skunk from down the road, where the skunk den is in patch of woods behind two churches on the main road. That patch of woods never has been developed, and I'm sure I know why:

SKUNKS!

Every few weeks, someone or something gets the skunk den down the road upset and you have to hold your nose for a portion of your ride down the main road, shutting off the a/c or heat because it would make matters worse. It's been occurring for years through this area. The High School is right up next to those woods, and their running track. I cannot imagine the horrible vile smells the teachers and kids have bravely dealt with over the years!

Very occasionally the perfume is due to a motor vehicle striking one, but more often than not, it's the product of ornery skunks getting scared, mad or just being skunks, that causes the odoriferous misery. I can honestly say I'm not a fan of the wild rodents. Not after years and years of this.

When a skunk decides to 'lock, load and shoot', the vile smell rises, and we get a distinct odor of

the stinky varmint all through our area, since we are higher than the main road. It is not pleasant, but not anything like the main road and High School area! Our whiffs slowly dissipating over a few hours.

The next day Bill had to go into the main office, and as he drove home he discovered why we had such a terrible skunk experience a few days past. As Bill drove down the road by our home he spotted something white and fat scuffling down the middle of the road. It was the culprit! Sashaying down the middle of the road was a portly skunk with attitude to spare! Bill immediately stopped our car, watching with fascinated horror as the skunk turned to look at him with a meaningful stare, then returned to his walk in the middle of the road~ as though he owned the subdivision and had all the time in the world! (He did.) When he got to the neighbor's house across the street, he left the road and sauntered across the gently sloping yard, disappearing into the gloom around the bottom of their house! Eek!

I got online and did some skunk research. Skunks do not wander aimlessly. Mostly they stick to a two mile radius around their dens. Super. That means the main den down the road is NOT where this skunk came from~ it came from much closer to home! With more reading, I discovered to my horror that they sometimes 'overwinter' under homes!!!

When I mentioned what I found out, it was clear that our crotchety neighbor had a visitor. Under their home. “It says here that as long as they aren't disturbed, they aren't terrible to live with~ they do a good job keeping mice, other rodents and bugs out of a person's home.” I read to Bill.

“Well...our neighbor will eventually figure it out wouldn't you think?” I said miserably. They aren't pleasant neighbors, and I sure didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. “Oh yeah, if the skunk keeps doing what it did the other night...they'll figure it out!” he grinned. It was impossible not to giggle a bit~ sometimes karma has a sense of humor~ unlike our grouchy neighbor.

I mentioned that they probably would move on in the spring, since living under a house isn't their favorite area according to the article. They would find a patch of woods within two miles and make it their permanent home. Good to know. My bet is they will go down the road close to the creek (crick!) since there are frogs and other wildlife that come to drink there, and there is a nice patch of woods close by.

That's only down the road, so not really good news. Hopefully this will be a more sanguine skunk, although it seems not likely at this point in time. I feel badly for whomever he decides to 'move in' with permanently on their wooded property. This is part of living right up close to the mountains. People forget that we are so close to the Great Smokies. I don't know why. We can see them right out the back door, sparkling with late season snow on Mount Laconte on a clear day. It's a tradeoff. You get to live around all this beauty~ or you go and live in the city...and there still are no guarantees that you won't get wildlife in your little area of the world.

Years ago, a black bear sauntered through the parking garage across the street from the hospital I worked at in the middle of town. An early nurse parked her car, and watched with fascination the huge lumbering beast as she made her way across the tarmac! Strangely, the nurse never reported the bear until it was spotted sitting in front of the lobby doors by security, who frantically called the house supervisor to inform them they had a very big, very grumpy visitor by the front lobby doors!

Things happened quickly then~ the entire hospital campus was blocked off so no-one would wander up on the bear! Wildlife officials were notified and were on their way with a bear transport device and a stun gun. Meanwhile, the poor bear was clutching a newly planted Oak tree in the landscaping next to the chapel. She clutched frantically at the top branches of the little tree, observing all the hubbub around her.

Ultimately the bear was darted with a sedative, stuffed into the transport device attached to a truck and driven away. The bear was tagged, it was a 'problem bear' that had been moved a week ago to a conservatory area fifty miles away! That bear had to walk next to a major interstate (I-40)!, through subdivisions, past a major shopping mall, and finally through the center of the city, crossing one of the two bridges across the Tennessee river that flowed in front of the hospital!

Two weeks later....the bear was spotted in subdivisions trying to do a repeat of its hospital visit! This time they caught her and relocated her hundreds of miles away. Probably exhausted, she decided to stay that time.

After all the excitement died down, the news trucks left and life was returning to 'normal' at the hospital, the nurse who had seen the bear hours before, in the parking garage was asked why she hadn't let anyone know about the bear. She replied that she didn't think anyone would believe her that early in the morning! She figured people would say she dreamed it since she was up to work so early!

I'm sure Frax is very happy that it's just a skunk, opossums, chipmunks, squirrels and various owls that he has to be on the watch for in our backyard! I agree with him on that, since I 'missed' seeing the bear in the parking garage by minutes!