We don’t live in the country, but there is a lot of wooded area in and around our neighborhood. There is a town park that consists of 183 acres that links up via trails to the park at the top of our street.
Most encounters are casual and by that I mean, from a distance. Yesterday we walked out the door and started down the drive way when Sampson noticed a deer across the street. Of course that set him barking, which got Delilah barking and so we waited until the deer had moved along and then continued on our way.
Living in the area I do it’s a given we will encounter wild animals. To date I’ve seen a coyote, lots of deer, a rafter of turkeys, a fox, raccoons, owls, chippies, snakes.
Surprise Mutherfucker!! He, he, he, you should see the look on your face. (Photo courtesy of Animal Pictures.)
Like I said, most of these encounters are casual. But when I see something that has the potential (in my opinion) to cause harm, well let’s just say the hair on my body stands on end and I shiver.
Then I beat feet.
The one thing I hadn’t seen that I’d been dreading was a skunk. I’ve sure smelt them in my area, but hadn’t seen them.
During the fall, winter and spring months our morning walks often take place in the dusk/dark, and my dogs love to shove their heads in bushes.
Nah, nothing can hurt you in the bushes. Stick your nose in a little further.
After Storm from 2 Brown Dogs got skunked, I really started to think about this more. Then someone posted on Facebook that their dog got skunked, then another. I started to wonder….is my time coming?
Sampson is usually the one who chooses the path we walk and he usually gets fixated on one route, we do that route frequently until he gets fixated on a different route.
Oh shit, does this mean he’s obsessive compulsive? WTF Sampson!
So one day last week we’re traveling his little route and the dogs are doing their sniffing/peeing business and one of them shoves their nose into a bush. I see a bushy black animal with a white stripe push it’s way farther back into the bushes.
I Thought I saw a Skunk.
Go, Go, Go
The hair on my body stood on end. The exact words out of my mouth were, “Jesus Christ, Go, Go, Go”, and I started walking as fast as I could away from it. Thankfully my dogs understand the concept of Go, Go, Go, which by the way, most of you will have an emergency recall, but I also think it’s important to have a command for when you really need to hustle with your dogs, for whatever reason. Somehow ours has become Go, Go, Go and it works.
Afterwards I was unsure if I’d seen a skunk or a cat, I mean it happened so fast. Did it push it’s way through the bushes or did it jump? Do skunks jump?
I had to find out if skunks jumped, so I turned to Google.
I found a website with info about skunk that actually made me giggle. I know, right? Who giggles about a skunk?
From the Wildlife Hotline Website:
“Skunk versus anything – Skunk wins. The thing to remember is that they KNOW it. Many of us in the wildlife management community sincerely love the skunks. Even when they a little babies, they have the ego of a skunk. Skunks do not care if you see them at night. These are not animals that you shine a light on and they scatter. They just don’t care about you, or your dog, cat, or even your car for that matter. To a skunk, nothing is a threat. Do you know why you smell skunk when one gets hit by a car? It’s not because they naturally release their scent upon death. You smell them because the skunk saw the car coming, and they sprayed the car to make it stop. It never occurred to the skunk that the car wouldn’t back down – everything else does.” Source
I’m not sure about you, but that last bit about the skunk spraying the car struck me funny.
Alternate titles: Get Your Skunk On, Pepe´Le Pew, Who Giggles at Skunks?
It seems I wasn’t quite clear in that post regarding blog hops. I do hope to cover the topic in a post next week, but in the meantime please go back and read the update. 🙂
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Oh my gosh, I would of freaked out if I saw a skunk! My dogs know GO GO GO, too!! 😀 That’s interesting about them and the cars. I did not know that!
I think skunks are in ALL of our futures – and if we haven’t met one yet, that’s just dumb luck. Mom has the desunking recipe in her phone – 4c. hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 c. baking soda, 2tsp. liquid soap – Leave on 5-10 minutes, keep away from eyes, flush with warm water. She hopes never to need it, but….
Love and licks and I wonder what’s in that bush….
Cupcake
We have skunks in the area as we smell them on the road in the fall, but we have never ever seen one alive. We have seen coyote and fox on our early walks, but they usually hit the road when they see us coming.
Where I live in Northern Virginia, I’ve seen pretty much the same list of animals. That’s why leashes are so essential! When I need to speed my guys up, I say “Jig, Jig, Jig”.
My friend and I were out for a walk with Wilson (pre-Jimmy days) and her Lab, Mousse. We round the bend in our trail, and there is a momma skunk and her baby. Fortunately we saw her before the dogs did! She was in a spot where it was impossible to go wide to avoid her. And she wasn’t going to budge. She just held her ground and blocked the trail. We had to turn around and back track to a spot where we could pass her by walking down stream in the creek that paralleled the trail . The dogs were kept on tightly held leashes and wondered what the heck we were doing walking so far in the stream. What a memory!
Beware those black and white creatures! Rudy got skunked a couple days ago. Actually, we all got skunked, but it stuck on Rudy. I was out in the backyard doing some weeding with all 3 dogs and Rudy raced to the east corner of the yard (about 20 ft away from me). I smelled it first and looked up in time to see the skunk walk around the corner of the barn. I realized later as I watched out for the skunk that she must be moving babies (thankfully up the lane and down the road somewhere!) No fun at all.
We haven’t seen any skunk around here, and I really don’t want to. But stink aside, they are kinda cute. I always think of “Radar O’Reilly” when I read about people spotting wild animals on their walks. Those thoughts always make me smile. So, I guess I would go with “Who Giggles at Skunks?”
I think skunks are the cutest thing but I don’t want them spraying my dogs.
The only thing I don’t like about walking early in the morning is the potential for wildlife encounters. Luckily we haven’t met a skunk yet (knock wood). I worry more about bears in our area!
I understood what you were saying about blog hops. I know there have been times where I’ve planned my post around a blog hop, when there might be something else I’d really rather be writing about. What I like about your hop is that it is open to anything. So it’s a chance to write whatever I want but still hopefully get a little more traffic to my site.
Torrey is the same way. Sticking her head in bushes, running ahead. Hopefully we can avoid a skunk. They seem rather ballsy from what I just read.
I have to confess I chuckled too about the wildlife website on skunks. For some reason, Go-Go-Go at my house means pause, turn around, look at Mom, blink as if it were spoken in Yugoslavian, then ever so s.l.o.w.l.y. and I do mean slowly, amble forward. It’s usually in my galley kitchen or at the back door hallway when I’m trying desperately to bring in a heavy load of groceries and maneuver around Sam. One of these days dog, one of these days. 🙂
Mine will take any chance to explore, sticking their heads wherever something interesting might be hiding. There are more often than not disappointed with their boring find!
sumskersandearlskers13.blogspot.com
Some friends found an orphaned skunk and had it de-smelled a few years ago. Big mistake. It was nocturnal and kept them awake all night. It was mean and fearless when it was awake. Now I understand why.
That is funny about the skunks spraying a car. If you want to read some funny shit about skunks, you have to read “Winterdance” – Gary Paulsen’s book about training for the Iditarod when he didn’t know WtH he was doing. (We have never been skunked. I’m knocking on wood!)
Thanks for clearing up the blog hop thing. (I have a pet peeve about bloggers who join a hop with a post that is COMPLETELY off topic. When Peggy and I used to do the Give Cancer the Paw hop, we had a couple of posts join that had zero to do with cancer. I think especially since it was a blog for info/support about such a sensitive topic, that really pissed me off!)
You made me LOL. We had friends visiting from South America and everyone got skunked when we were seeing them to their car a few years ago by a baby on our driveway. Isabelle the dog ran up to say hi and boom. A very nasty shock. There was a strong skunk smell a few nights ago in our garden, but haven’t seen one yet. Fingers crossed we will avoid them this year as the smell is really hard to get off. We have a very pushy raccoon on our back porch quite often. X Susie
Where I live (Australia) skunks are not a problem! They don’t sound like very nice creatures!
We only have to watch out for koalas, on our walks, and they’re safe in the trees.
Hi Y’all!
Oh you really, really know how to tell a story and put a wag in my tail!
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Yeah no more skunk encounters for us hopefully. I do know of dogs that have killed skunks. They smelled when all was said and done, but they did not let skunk win…lol.
Oh my gosh, I never imagined it happening to Haley either until last fall. She got skunked and it happened late at night when letting her out right before bed. It was so much worse than I ever imagined, but at least we had everything on hand to bathe her with. I have to admit, I’m kind of paranoid now when letting her out late at night. I hope it never happens to Sampson or Delilah, but be prepared just in case. 🙂