Sunday 7 October 2007

The poor Skunk


Here is a funny story about a cat and a skunk. I hadn't been living here in Anderson very long, and didn't know a lot about skunks except that they sprayed a very bad smelling liquid that I sure didn't want to get on me or my dogs or my cats.
One afternoon, I looked out of my kitchen window, and there was a cat cage out in my back yard because I was in the process of trying to catch a bunch of cats that had decided to come live with me. They were really enjoying the great food that they were getting, but I had told them that if they wanted to continue to enjoy the food, they really needed to go to the vets and get fixed and shots. So I would leave the cage out there, and feed them in it, one at a time.
Anyway, at this particular time, I looked out the window, there was a white animal right next to the cage, and a cat on top of the cage looking at the white animal. My cats all had a lot of white on them, soI didn't pay a lot of attention. But I kept looking and finally realized that it was a skunk.
After toatlly hitting my panic button, I decided I had to get the skunk to leave. The cat on top of the cage didn't seem the least bit disturbed. He thought it was just another animal. Oh Well.
Then I went outside and got armed with many missiles to throw at the skunk because I sure didn't want to get close to it. I did not throw anything that would have hurt the skunk. I was throwing bags that would rattle and the dogs toys and balls at it. Of course they all missed but eventually, the skunk got the picture, and very slowly wandered off without spraying anyone. I was amazed. All this took at least two hours and then I watched it for another hour to make sure it had gone far enough.
That night, I thought I had better see if he was outside, because I wanted to let the dogs go out. Sure enough, there he was, right up against my house. So I started again with the missiles, mostly boxes out of my house or anything that might scare him. But this time he didn't move. Just lay there. So I didn't take any chances, and took the dogs way out in the front pasture away from the skunk.
The next morning, I carefully looked for the skunk and didn't see him at all. So took the dogs to the barn and kept very close watch on them, and kept them right with me.
A little later on in the morning, I saw the same cat that had been sitting on top of the cage, looking into one of the boxes that I had thrown at the poor skunk. So I got really brave and walked over and peered into the box and sure enough, there was the skunk. The sad thing is that the skunk had died. I guess the poor thing just needed a quiet place to die. I felt horrible about it all, but really didn't know he was sick. I don't have any idea what was the matter with him or her. But at least he or she got a very nice burial. Poor thing. And it was a white skunk too. Very unusual.