Last week, Roger is asleep, I
can’t get to sleep. Got up and wrote out some bills. Windows are open,
as we do almost every night, in spite of how hot it has been. Don't have to run the air conditioner.
I smell skunk, run to the
windows, crank them shut. Look out the porch door, I see a spotted skunk
prowling around the flower pots and the cement blocks we have ready for a
project.
I watch thru the porch
window, he looks at me with beady eyes. I think, Can I get Roger awake
and get a gun? .Woke Roger up, but of course skunk was gone.
A night or so goes by. This
night I am sound asleep, and wake to the smell of skunk filling the bedroom,
shut the window, run to the kitchen. Too late, now the whole house is
full of smell. Besides that, the porch door window was left open.
No skunk in sight by the time I look. Hard to go back to sleep.
Both the car and tracker were
sitting outside. I used the car the next day, skunk smell floats out of
it.
The next evening, Saturday,
we went to the Bull Riding at Desparado Days in Kimball, the guy who told Roger
where to park said…”You hit a skunk on the way in, didn’t you?”
We bring up the live animal
traps, and set 3 of them…one right in front of the house, between front and
back steps, the other two on west and north side of garage.
Next AM, a cat only.
Smell lingers a little outdoors today. Catch an
occasional cat.
Now we are to Wednesday AM
the next week. I wake up about 4:30 AM, watch taped Olympics, windows are
open. Roger gets up at 5:30, and skunk smell starts its penetration.
Sure enough, a skunk in the
trap in front of the house. Roger is leaving for a sale, I implore him to
get rid of the skunk before he goes. He does not want to start his day
smelling like a skunk, but he fetches his 12 foot wire with a hook, and drags
the trap down to the calf yard. It was still dark. At 8:30, I go
check the trap, curious…is it a big skunk, or a smaller spotted one that I saw?
THE TRAP IS EMPTY!! The door is still tightly latched, the entire
screen on this trap is 1 inch by 1 ½ inches.
That night,still Wednesday, we set the
traps again. I toss and turn, remembering the spotted skunks that daughter Kim had
in her house, wondering if I have any small entry places around my house.
Checked before I went to bed, and released 2 of our wild/tame cats. Reset the
traps. We don’t think it will come back tonight, since it was caught just
this AM.
Roger goes to bed, he has an
early meeting Thursday. Before I can get to bed, I smell skunk,
take a peek, there is a skunk in the garage trap. Wake Roger up
anyway. He says, “It can’t get out of that trap, the screens are
even smaller..they are 1 inch square.”
Thursday AM, Roger dresses
for skunk job, and sure enough, THE TRAP IS EMPTY again!
Conclusion, but not the end
of the story: This must be a young civet cat, and we now think it is
getting out BETWEEN the sprung down catch door and the side of the trap,
again, I measured, there is only 1 inch of space, but the space is about 12
inches long. A 12 by 1 inch space?? They must be like a rat,
if they can get their head thru a space, then the body will follow.
Will set again tonight, with
gun by the door! Wish us luck!!
The saga will continue,
hopefully with better results.
Wish us luck,
From the Smelly Farm!
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