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By
Pat Yeo, ValleyPetNew.com guest columnis
We
met in my kitchen one evening. I
was watching television in the living room when I heard a noise from the
other room. It sounded like
our cat, Henrygirl, eating her food, but it couldn’t be. Henrygirl was at that very moment on my lap, snoozing
comfortably.
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got up and went to the kitchen door.
“Oh my God, oh my God” was all I could say, over and over
again. There, standing
in the middle of my kitchen was a skunk, having just finished my cat’s
dinner. We stood, as if frozen in time, for what seemed like an
eternity before the skunk finally turned and ran out the cat door.
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My
husband and I talked about this for the rest of the evening with great
agitation. What should we do?
We could close up the cat door (an obvious option), but then
Henrygirl wouldn’t be able to get in and out. I don’t want to suggest
that our cat is spoiled, but from the moment she first appeared on our
back porch several years earlier to adopt us, she had made it quite clear
that this arrangement would be in her terms.
We tried to make her an indoor cat, but she would have no part of
it. Soon we were installing
cat doors, and the matter was settled.
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slowly came to the realization that this was probably not the first
time that this skunk had been in our house.
We had gone on a brief camping trip the prior weekend and left out
lots of cat food, way more than Henrygirl could possibly ever eat in
two days. When we
returned the bowl was empty with dirty paw prints all around it.
We had been a bit puzzled at this, since Henrygirl is so clean.
The picture was becoming clearer.
This
skunk had been coming in and out of our house for quite a while, eating
our cat’s food. We talked
some more and then reached the brilliant conclusion that we were going to
do nothing. If this skunk had
been coming in and out already and had never left its scent, what was
there to worry about? I
can’t believe we were so naïve.
We
had a one night reprieve. The
second evening we went out to the movies.
When we returned, the smell in the house was overpowering. We could barely breathe inside, particularly in the kitchen.
The odor was indescribable. We
opened every window in the house, sprayed virtually everything we had that
might mask the odor, turned on the ceiling fans and went to bed.
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SUGGESTED
REMEDIES
FOR
THE PET
- Wash
with tomato juice.
- Wash
with tomato paste (sounds pretty messy to me, but then by the
time you get to this point, making a mess is really a secondary
sort of problem)
- Wash
with vinegar.
- Wash
with a rag soaked in Vanilla Extract (this sounds like much the
nicest remedy to me!)
- Wash
with Scope mouthwash.
FOR
THE HOUSE
- Boil
a pan of vinegar on the stove.
- Place
a bowl of dry coffee grounds in each room
- The
commercial remedy our guy used was N1-712, manufactured by
Neutron Industries, Inc. (1/800/421-8481).
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We
also closed the cat door. I
believe this could be called closing the barn door after the horse has
been stolen. Henrygirl did
not care for the fact that her door was closed and had us up and down all
night, letting her in, letting her out.
It really didn’t matter much, because we certainly weren’t
sleeping well. The smell was
overpowering.
We
came to the conclusion that this particular skunk had become very fond of
our home (and food) and probably was not going to go away on its own.
We were going to have to take action.
We
talked to everyone we knew – the vet, pet stores, people at work,
strangers on the street – hoping to find someone who could give us good
advice as to how to proceed. Someone
suggested tomato juice. Great. What are we supposed to do with it? Wash the walls and carpets with it? Lay inside the cat door and throw it on the skunk when it
comes back? Someone else said
to use vinegar. We filled a
spray bottle with vinegar and went room to room, spraying everything in
sight. It seemed to help at
first, but soon (very soon) the odor was back.
Obviously,
we still also had the problem of the skunk itself. How were we going to get this skunk out of our lives?
We didn’t want it dead, but we did want it gone.
Our inquiries eventually led us to the Humane Society.
They said they had a solution.
We
picked up a Skunk Trap from their offices.
This was a large, heavy box with a wire contraption at one end to
hold the bait. On this wire,
we were to hook the bait – tuna or bacon wrapped in cheesecloth. Theoretically the skunk would go into the box after the bait
and the door would slam down, trapping it inside.
The jolly fellow at the Humane Society told us that we could then
either call them to pick it up or just put the box in our car and bring it
to them and they would take care of relocating the skunk.
PUT IT IN OUR CAR?! Was
he kidding? He assured us
that once the skunks are in the box, they hardly ever spray. The words “hardly ever” concerned us. We decided that we would have them come pick up the box.
Now
we have the trap, we have the bait, but we also have another problem here.
There’s no doubt that if we set this trap, our Henrygirl will be
the first one in it. So, off
to the vet she went. She
really did need a bath anyway, so this seemed like a good opportunity.
We
spent another terrible night. Was
this skunk now standing outside our bedroom window spraying all night
long, or was this residual from the original blast?
It was impossible to tell. Certainly
the hot weather wasn’t helping any either.
We were getting quite cranky with each other.
The
following morning there was nothing in the trap. The smell was worse.
We put fresh bait in again the following night, arranged for
Henrygirl to sleep over another night at the vets and spent another night
tossing and turning, trying to breathe through our mouths.
In the morning the trap remained empty.
By
now, I was more than just a little testy at work, what with the loss of
sleep and the relentless smell of skunk in my nostrils. Co-workers were
starting to avoid me. All I
could talk about was that skunk. Someone
suggested trying a pest control person.
I was on the phone immediately.
The fellow agreed to come over.
He
came that afternoon. “Sure
does smell bad in here” he offered as he walked through the house.
He went down into our basement with a flashlight and came
immediately back up. “There’s a dead skunk down there.
Do you want me to get it out?”
(No, we like it. . .OF COURSE WE WANT YOU TO GET IT OUT!).
He said that health regulations prevented him from doing so.
Money exchanged hands.
He
went out to his truck and returned some time later, wearing protective
clothing, looking like something out of Ghostbusters. Down into the basement he went.
When he returned with the skunk, he inquired if we wanted to take a
look. No thanks.
The
spray he used in the house
afterwards was good, very good. We
absolutely could not smell skunk any more.
The house smelled much like an Orange Julius factory when he was
done, but thankfully the skunk smell was gone and it did not return.
We
were concerned about the cause of death of this skunk.
Had it been injured? Had
it eaten bad food? We threw
out the rest of the food and water in Henrygirl’s dish.
Obviously we’ll never know for sure, but we eventually came to
the conclusion that this particular skunk had probably been sick when it
first wandered into our house, looking for some food, water, and a
comfortable place to die. It gives us a bit of comfort to think that we provided that.
Our
lives are back to normal. Our
house smells fresh and lovely. We now keep our cat door closed at night
and keep Henrygirl in. She
doesn’t like it much and usually has us up at daybreak (much earlier
than we care to arise) to let her out. Whenever we find ourselves being
annoyed by this, we remember “our” skunk.
Getting up early to let the cat out is a very small price to pay.
(Written years ago.)
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