Our stinky visitor

We had a visitor recently and I think it was a stressful 24 hour visit for him. It was no bed of roses for us, either.

It all began in the wee hours of Friday morning. Our outside dogs had been barking unceasingly and Suzy decided to join in, unceasingly. She has a shrill, piercing bark and it finally reached the point that my husband had to get up and tell her to be quiet. As we lay there in the dark, trying to go back to sleep my husband suddenly said, "Skunk! Do you smell it??" Sure enough...I caught the faintest whiff of "perfume". We knew the outside dogs must have cornered one and the smell was somehow getting into the house.

Friday morning we found it. He (she? I wasn't getting close enough to identify the sex) was huddled in the corner of the flower bed, hiding behind a waterhose caddy. If you look closely at this photo you'll see him.

We tried the keep the dogs away in hopes he'd take the opportunity to escape. No luck. Skunks tend to be nocturnal, so he wasn't planning to go anywhere for awhile. Throughout the day the dogs would get close and bark at him. Fortunately they stayed out of range and never got sprayed directly. Still....he was warning them and the perfume lingered.

Around 3:30 Saturday morning my husband heard them barking again. This time he went outside and used the waterhose to keep the dogs away from him. Then he sprayed in the skunk's general direction hoping to drive him out. It must have worked since he was gone at daybreak....and it must have been an uneventful exit since none of the dogs got targeted.

Whew! I'm glad that's over! I'm sure our visitor is glad, too.

Patience & Wisdom

I received this in an e-mail today. It was sent as a joke, but there's a lot of truth in it!

One of the greatest secrets of life is having patience & wisdom...