This year we have had a lot of skunks around our house. It seemed like you could smell them every night starting at the end of April. Not acceptable to me. One night I smelled skunk really strongly so I went to the sliding door to see if I could actually see where the darn thing was. I turned on the porch lights and pulled back the blinds and all I could see was tail. The biggest skunk I had ever seen in my life was on the top step of my porch with his tail straight up in the air ready to fire. I swear his tail was taller than the top of my knees and it looked over a foot wide! I jumped back away from the door and went over to the couch where Shane was sleeping. He woke up to me frantically saying over and over "There's a skunk on the porch, there's a skunk on the porch!" He jumped up, still half asleep, and went out the door (where the skunk had just sprayed) in hot pursuit. After not being able to locate the skunk he came back in and as you can imagine the odor followed him through the door. On this night...a skunk hunter emerged. Shane found out how to make a skunk trap on YouTube. We had as many as 3 traps set at one time. One morning after he had caught one of his first skunks, Shane woke Brody up before school so that he could go shoot it. Mind you, Brody has to catch the bus at 7:20 am so he had to get up really quite early. When they got back that morning I could smell skunk but Brody assured me that it was Shane that smelled like it not him. Shane had made the comment that the skunk had come out of the box and lifted its tail but hadn't sprayed...thank goodness for just a warning. The very next morning Shane left for work and came back just as I was getting up to get the kids ready for school. He walked through the house in just his underwear and was kind of chuckling to himself. He went in to shower and shut the bathroom door. That is when it hit me...He had been sprayed. I smelled the most pungent horrific smell of skunk that I had ever smelled. I started gagging immediately and the only thought that was going through my mind..."Oh, I am going to kill him!" I went in the kids' bedroom and quickly shut the door. Haylie was just waking up and said "I smell a stunk and I'm not even kidding." Poor Brody had already been in the shower and had good clothes on. He went through the whole house spraying Febreeze on everything. It didn't help. By the time he got back in the bedroom, his clothes smelled like skunk so he had to change. By this time Shane had finished showering, started the washing machine (with his skunk clothes in it) and snuck out of the house. I couldn't believe his clothes were in my house. As soon as the hot water hit them, it was as if someone steamed my whole house with skunk spray. This was the morning of the school hikes. Haylie went to school crying because she just knew that everyone was going to make fun of her because she smelled like a stunk. I met the kids at the park for their hikes. When I got down there I asked a couple of people if they could smell skunk and most of them were nice and said no. I did run in to Julie and Alicia and they did say that if you took a deep breath when you were next to me that yes they could detect a faint skunk odor. After the hikes we went home and the house still smelled like skunk. Not just a little...but horribly. I had to take some paper work to the courthouse and while I was there Mary from the extension office said she had some skunk spray that would take the odor out of my house. I was willing to try anything. We took the skunk cleaner home and put some in the washer with Shane's clothes and some in a spray bottle diluted with water. After about 5 minutes I couldn't believe it...the smell was gone. Hallelujah what a relief! When Shane got home that night he was in big big trouble but since the smell was now gone he couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. He must have felt a little guilty though because he got quite defensive when I asked what in the world was he thinking to come walking through the house after he had been sprayed. His defense??? He put his clothes right straight in the washer and left his boots outside and it didn't even smell like skunk at all. A few days later (when it wasn't quite so fresh in my mind) I heard him telling the tale of getting sprayed. About how the spray wasn't a spray at all...instead it is a nice yellowish greenish goo and that the skunk had nailed him right in the face in two places. If it had been me, I would have learned a lesson from the first skunk that gave a little warning and figured something out before I had to get sprayed. Oh well...lesson learned. Every time they caught a skunk after that he was extremely careful about how he released them so as to not get sprayed.
One of Shane's homemade skunk traps.
I think this one is Brody's. Cat food on the corner of the court for bait.
Shane would make up a concoction of peanut butter, cat food, and marshmallows and put inside the trap. Then one of his co-workers told him marshmallows worked really well so he switched bait.
Brody had the task of checking the traps when Shane stayed in Boulder.
There's something in there. Sometimes we caught the cats so you never knew what you were going to find.
What is it???
When Shane got home he found out it was a skunk.
Getting rid of the stinky little pest.
YUCK!
I don't know where we had been this night but we had just gotten home and I noticed that the trap had been set off. Shane went to look and sure enough there was a skunk in there.
Double checking just to make sure it wasn't a cat before we called Mitch who was staying at Grandma Connie's house. Daph and Mitch came down to help dispose of the creature.
In transport.
Brody getting ready to shoot. Famous last words...I never miss.
Shane getting ready to turn it loose.
Patiently waiting.
Brody trying to talk Mitch into shooting it.
Daph and I were mucking through thick sticky mud in flip flops trying to way out of the path of this little beast when Brody missed. Thank goodness his dad is a sharp shooter and came to our rescue.
The very same night we caught another one. We decided that we would leave it for Mitch to shoot when he came down the next day for a BBQ. Shane has learned a new technique for letting them out. He climbs to the top of the hill and then dumps them over. The skunk must be too scared to spray because you don't even smell them. It was decided that Daph would take the first shot and Mitch would be her back up.
Shane getting ready to dump.
When Shane dumped the skunk out it had barely touched the ground when Daphne fired her first shot. See the puddle in front of Mitch? That is where her first shot went. It made a big splash but missed the skunk. You could hear her saying "Oh my gosh I missed" as she frantically tried to reload her gun. Meanwhile I am standing by Mitch saying "Shoot it Mitch, Shoot it" I thought we were skunk bait for sure. Daph finally got her gun cocked and shot it followed up by a quick shot from Mitch. Good job by the"city folk" for not letting us get sprayed.
Daph taking a picture of her trophy. Who knew skunks could be such great entertainment?
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