It must be mating season!

[Wandering Man]

And a new family has moved in under our house.

My wife was awakened the other night while I was away to the sound of something making chittering noises. Once the dogs began barking, the noise went away, and was replaced by a familiar odor:

I caught Oscar later in the week.

I'm away in Victoria again, and am missing out on the fun. Yesterday she came home to a house filled with skunk odor. I walked her through how to set the trap, with the hope we can continue to reduce the population of skunks living under our house.

Last night was filled with talking skunks and barking dogs. She and the dogs got very little sleep last night. Frank and PD kept running down the ramp off of the bed to bark at the skunks. PD and Frank had their noses to the floor, and were trying to dig through our wood floors to get to the skunks.

PD finally let Frank do all the running. He just sat in bed and barked whenever Frank would bark from the other room.

Kathy caught another skunk, but I suspect we have more. She was not very happy about my being in Victoria, while she had the dogs and skunks.

I'm a little afraid to go home tomorrow ...

Any suggestions?

 

[Doxmom]

You're afraid of Kathy, not the skunks, I take it...

Smart man - she's probably setting a trap for you - just for leaving her alone to contend with the skunks.

My suggestion - eradicate the critters (even if you have to call a wild life expert) and then think long and hard about how you are going to make this up to her..

A nice dinner out with a single rose waiting by her place setting would be a good start...

 

[Wandering Man]

And then next we'll buy a house in Victoria that's not on pier & beam ...

She's put the house up for sale, not because of the skunks, but because its hard to live in two different places.

We'll be moving out of a house that her parents bought in 1960. We moved in in 2002, after her parents died.

The skunks are helping her to break the emotional ties, I think.

 

[Doxmom]

The house is so pretty - with so much character! Nice to see the fam, too.. (minus the skunks!)

 

[Wandering Man]

Thank you.

The house was built in 1919 or 1920. The builder used lumber salvaged from buildings destroyed by the 1919 hurricane. The walls are wood planks under the sheetrock. I've bent nails trying to hang pictures on the wall.

We've got some mixed feelings about moving out.

 

[sherlock]

Ewwie!!! Skunk smell is the absolute worst....my parents live off of a lake and there's a wooded area...occasionally a skunk gets in the yard...my beagle has now been sprayed 6 times. Maybe 7? The first time it happened we didn't realize SHE had been sprayed and we let her inside. YUCK!

Anyway....I feel your pain!

Oh, and that house is so super adorable! Dumb skunks ruining it!

 

[Wandering Man]

Success, I think. We caught our 6th skunk last night. I don't think we have any more.

As a bonus, I caught a large fat raccoon, too.

And to think we live in the heart of town, just blocks away from the Main Street on one side of us, and two blocks away from city hall on the other.

Any one interested in some Skunk - Coon stew?

Yummmm ...

 

[DeafDogs]

Ahh the lovely smell of skunk... it's that time of year here, they're starting to come out of hibernation and are getting themselves hit on the roads ALOT...

 

[Wandering Man]

Ewwie!!! Skunk smell is the absolute worst....my parents live off of a lake and there's a wooded area...occasionally a skunk gets in the yard...my beagle has now been sprayed 6 times. Maybe 7? The first time it happened we didn't realize SHE had been sprayed and we let her inside. YUCK!

Anyway....I feel your pain!

Oh, and that house is so super adorable! Dumb skunks ruining it!

Thank you.

Henry (RIP) got sprayed twice in our back yard. We have a doggie door that the dogs make good use of.


The first time it happened we heard barking, then a yelp. I was standing in the kitchen when a black streak flashed accross the floor. He was already in the den rolling around on the couch by the time the wall of fumes hit me.

I started yelling at Kathy to "get him out of here!" ... a rather useless thing to say, but my mind hadn't figured out anything better to say at the time.

Henry raced from room to room, rolling on rugs and furniture, with us in hot pursuit. We finally contained him on the front porch while I did an internet search for skunk deoderizers.

We bathed that poor dog three time that night, I think. I don't remember the formula, but it did not involve ketchup or tomato juice. The smell eased up a bit, but he still stunk for a week. As did everything else in our house.

The second time he was sprayed was less dramatic. We still had a bit of yelling and chasing, but not as much. Then we just bathed him in a doggy shampoo, and it worked the first time!