Woodchucks, squirrels and skunks....
...oh my!
The battle of Tera vs the backyard critters continues. But now it has expanded to include dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks squirrels and...ugh... skunks.
The darwin-award-hopeful squirrel was found and released by myself before the wildlife-pro came that day to check the traps. I don't think I've ever seen an animal (short of a cheetah on one of those Discovery Channel specials) move that fast. He shot out of that trap like a bullet straight over to the stand of trees on the neighbors property (good place for 'im)
The first of the skunks showed up a few days later. He looked big, mean and highly put-out that he was stuck in that trap. It appeared he was heading into one of the holes dug under the shed by the woodchucks and instead found himself stuck in a very confining metal box. I left that one to the wildlife-pro. If Mr. Skunk was going to take his revenge on someone, it wasn't going to be me. I gladly shelled out the $35 for the pro to take his chances with Eau De P U.
Which brings us to today. Since it was the weekend and it wasn't raining, I figured I would get an hour or so of lawn work done. It was a good thing I checked the traps before starting the tractor, because there was Mr. Skunk #2.
This one was much smaller than the first. If he really wanted to he would have no trouble turning himself around to take aim and fire at will. All from the relative safety of his new home. And it looked like just that. When I took a closer look, it appeared that he had built himself a little nest and was napping before I had peeked in and disturbed him.
Ok, so much for mowing the lawn. That is, until Dan got here.
Dan offered to mow the lawn AND get rid of Mr. Skunk#2. I kindly pointed out that Mr. Skunk#2 probably didn't want to be bothered again and had ample room and opportunity to hose Dan which would just result in Dan getting sent home, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Dan insisted he could pull it off, and if he did get sprayed I would have first dibs as laughing at him before calling his brother for a ride home in the back of his pickup. Obviously Dan was intent on going through with it and all I could do was put 100 feet (and the back door) between me and his new pal.
So now Dan is out mowing the lawn. He managed to get the trap open, without getting sprayed, but the skunk has made no effort to leave the trap. He actually went back to sleep.
Round 2 Winner - Mr. Skunk#2