TWIL: Skunk season

Five days ago, I was awakened between three and four a.m. by a skunk just outside my bedroom window. The smell woke me.  It wasn’t a fresh skunk spray: I could still breathe. It was just the smell that says a skunk is nearby.

The smell was accompanied by the sound of an animal scrabbling at the foundation of the house. 

“Ah well,” I thought, “You won’t get far tunneling into the basement.”

The next night, again, awakened between three and four by the smell, but this time no scrabbling. And the next and the next. I resigned myself to two weeks of sleeping six feet from the Skunk Family, because that’s how long skunks stay in a den.  

Two nights ago the stench was particularly bad. Gary happened to be up. He weighed in. “ELLEN YOU ARE CRAZY THERE’S NO SKUNK WHAT YOU SMELL IS THE DEAD MICE IN THE BASEMENT,” followed ten minutes later by, “I CAN’T BREATHE ELLEN THE SKUNK SMELL IS EVERYWHERE.”

I investigated “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE,” and that’s when I learned that February to March is Skunk Mating Season. (They didn’t take advantage of the assonance and call it Skunk Fucking Season. I bet they wanted to.)

So we might be saddled with wee skunklets for over a month. Last night a dog barked right outside the window, and it snowed, so I will check tomorrow to see if I see any animal tracks. 

Comments

[CHM]

Am I wrong to want to call it Skunk Funking Season? But maybe it's all year round that they leave a funky smell so it doesn't work.

But ugh. Skunks anywhere nearby - not a good thing. Unless... do they keep other undesirables at bay?

[theQueen]

Common Household Mom - well, they eat grubs, mice, voles, and caterpillars. Personally, I feel raccoons do the same and yet do not smell.