Be Careful What You Pray For There's a Skunk in the House

Yep, that’s right a skunk in the house! Why would anyone would pray, or ask anyone for a skunk in the house. Well, you should be very careful in not only what you pray for, but how you ask for it when you do. I just wanted to know they were OK.

Let me start by saying that I am an animal lover at heart and I mean if it has four legs, two legs, three legs, I don’t care if it needs something I’m going to try and provide it. This could be food, shelter, water, and normally skunks would not be my animal of choice to help out, but I’m not the one dealing the cards, so I just play the hand I’ve been given.

As you can see in the videos (sorry they were taken with my phone but they will make you laugh, esp. the dog and the pig) , I love baby animals no matter what they are. I will try and raise all sorts of injured stray babies, that are either left by mothers that were injured, or sometimes when mom was taken from them to soon.

Where I live, there are several huge containers in the back that have wood, pvc pipe, engines, and all kinds of stuff in them. I use a lot of the wood for remodeling (part of the property agreement). Once while I was getting some wood out for a project I noticed some droppings that I thought were from a snake. Come to find out it was from 2 baby skunks, as you can see in the Stinker Gets Dinner video.

If you have ever been around a wild skunk and been sprayed, close to being sprayed, or just came upon one by accident, you probably learned that when you hear the tap, tap, tap of their little feet someone is getting ready to get sprayed and stink to high heaven.

Well, I fed these two little creatures until they were big enough to go out on their own, or so I thought. I figured since they were far enough away from the house and mom was no where to be seen this would be OK. I called one Stinker and the other Stinkette (I know how original right:). They actually became pretty use to me coming to feed as you can see in the video, well Stinker did anyway. I figured as long as they had food and water they wouldn’t need to wander around and explore, (mistake number one).

Mistake number two came when I went out to check their food and water supply (every couple of days) and it remained full for over a week I assumed that after almost 2 months of feeding them they had gone off to start a new life in the wildlife preserve behind the containers. I didn’t see, hear, or smell (usually the first clue) of them for over a month almost two. I figured they, like the pigs had grown up and fled the coop. I hoped and prayed they would be OK and I wished there was I way I could know they would be alright, (mistake number three.)

I don’t know what all inspired me other than reading a few very inspirational hubs and watching my favorite show from last night, but I was ready to roll this morning. I was up had my coffee and toast, fed the dogs, went to feed the horses (whose feed is in the garage, larger than the house) and I heard this rustle of bags that contained empty water bottles.

I thought the bags had just fallen off the hook and that for the first time since I had been here, there was a rat/mouse. If you have horses it happens sometimes especially when there is a huge wildlife area behind you and they start mowing, or find the feed. I considered myself lucky and figured that my Black and Decker plug ins, (they keep away ants, roaches, rats, etc) had been continuing to do the job, but one had snuck in, . I figured I was lucky in that way and I would just have to deal with it, (should have just adopted a cat).

Then as I lifted off the top of the container with the feed in it and went to put it on the ground I froze stiff as an icicle, as I heard the tap, tap, tap of a little foot. I looked over and next to a stack of boxes I had leaning against the wall was my long lost buddy Stinker. Hoping and definitely asking the big guy upstairs to help the little rascal remember who fed him for almost 2 months I stood very patiently just waiting to see what he was going to do. Realize at one point one of the babies would literally come take food out of my hand, but at this point I have no idea if this is the one. Then here come the dogs who had just finished eating and of course do not realize there is a skunk next to me.

Thinking it was play time they ran up to see what was the hold up with feeding the horses and Stinker amazingly ran behind the boxes, (unlike before when he had sprayed two of them). Now normal people would have probably been thinking how in the heck are they going to get the skunk out of the house. That unfortunately was not my first thought at all, it was “This will make a great hub if I can just get a picture.” So as I ran to get my phone and set it up while Stinker I can only imagine sat waiting behind the boxes of Pergo for food. I grabbed a couple apples and some grapes (their favorite) and was setting up my camera and the little bugger grabs the little plastic bowl I put them in and pulls it behind the boxes. OK I may not be the brightest bunch of turnips but I am smart enough to leave a skunk alone while he’s eating his favorite foods. So I set up my video to see if he would come out for more, (bigger bowl this time) but it didn’t work.

It is now about 5pm my time and I have tried to move some things around to see if I could get him to move around or come out and it’s just not going to happen. So at this point I’m sure he’s either had enough to eat and found the way out, or he is having a good days sleep (skunks are nocturnal) and will be out to see me later.

My lesson learned today is to be careful what I pray for and how I ask for it when I do. You see as I said earlier all I really wanted to know was that they were OK, and I guess that was a real good way of making sure I found out.

Have an incredible day, and hopefully there will be no tomato juice bathes here later.