Jan 31, 2011

Skunks: All in One

I decided to write a number of stories in one since they all have a common disliked animal, a Skunk.
My experiences with skunks started at an early age as I became very familiar with the common scent they put off. Each time as I would try to go to sleep at night, when their scent would filter through the air, I would little understand the very personal relationship I would develop with them over the years.
I first recall the call from dad to the older boys to get the .22 rifles because they had seen a spotted skunk, known as a Civit Cat, as they were driving toward the house from town. The Civit Cat was dreaded because it could go through a hole in the chicken coop no larger than their very head which was probably no lager than a quarter and at most a 50 cent piece. When they would get into the chicken coop they would kill the chickens as they slept and suck their blood from a small hole or bite in the neck of the chicken. I remember a lot of chickens that we lost that way. Then there were the striped skunks that were much larger and more plentiful. They wouldn’t kill the chickens but they would eat the eggs so they were also hunted and destroyed.
One of my first memories of skunks, when I was actually involved with them, came when I was around 11 or 12 years old and went with my father and brothers to haul hay at the church farm in Utahn. Since I really wasn’t big enough to lift the bales my job was to turn them over making it faster for the ones coming behind to pick them up and put them on the trailers. When the trailers had gone to the stack we were then free to play for a few minutes. Well that was where the trouble came because several of us younger kids spotted a skunk and happily went to throw rocks at it. We didn’t get close enough to be sprayed cause we were to smart for that. However we were to dumb to really be considered smart since we would chase after it through the field where it had sprayed and thus the scent was transferred to our clothes anyway. We ended up riding home in the back of the trucks.
I was around 16 when I was mowing the hay and carried the shotgun on the tractor with me since the favorite place for a skunk to hide was in the tall hay. As we would mow the hay from the outside of the field toward the middle the skunks would simply move into the still standing hay in the middle of the field and then as the area became smaller they would then venture out and run across the field. It was at that point that we would use the shotgun to kill them. This particular time though was my first in using the shotgun verses the .22 rifle. As the skunk ran from the hay it headed directly toward the stack yard. I didn’t see it until I had turned the tractor and headed in the direction of the stack yard. I quickly stopped mowing and pulled the shotgun from it’s case on the tractor and headed for the stack yard. I got there just as the skunk was headed into some tall bushes at the top of the stack yard. I quickly pulled up the shotgun and pulled the trigger. I didn’t know if I had hit it so I pumped another shell into the chamber at which time it fired again. Ihit the skunk both times and never forgot the surprise I felt as the second shot fired. I hadn’t meant to fire but as I pumped the new shell into the chamber I had forgotten to move my finger from the trigger area and promptly pulled the gun forward thus pulling the gun into the trigger finger. That was the last time I ever pumped a second shell into the chamber with my finger still near the trigger.
Then when I was 17 I was hired by Mr. Wilkerson to work in his Texaco gas station from 10 pm to 6 am every day of the week for the summer following graduation till I left for college. Since it was past 9:30 pm as I would leave for work I would often walk out to the track parked in the driveway without the use of any light. I knew my way to the truck so why use a flashlight? Well I found out why in a hurry one very dark night as I went to the truck parked out near the garage. Our garage was built back into the hillside and was covered with dirt. Inside the left side of the garage we had a small chicken setting on some eggs in a brooder. I just happened to walk out there as a skunk was headed into the garage for an evening snack of eggs. I must have nearly stepped on it since the spray I got was a direct hit with the yellow stuff. It didn’t take long for everyone in the house to figure out something had happened either so they were already after the gun and had the porch light on by the time I ran back to the house. I was not allowed into the back porch but was handed the gun through the door. I was also given a flashlight and then walked back out to the garage. I Turned on the light and then got down on the ground so I could see under the brooder to find the skunk. It was near the hen and I quickly fired. The bullet the broke a bottle that was stored at the back of the garage. I fired four more shots each at from a different angle since I kept hitting those blasted bottles and not the skunk. When the shooting was done and the air was cleared I discovered that I had hit the skunk all five times. The bullet had passed through the small skunk and hit the bottles in the back of the garage each time. I to this day don’t know why the bottles were being stored there but it didn’t matter since I had wiped out all of them with the one skunk.
You would think that getting married and moving to the city would have then stopped my mixing it up with skunks but, no, it continued. I didn’t move to a big enough city but rather to a small farming community near the city. A member of our church ward some years later gave us some of their chickens. They got a new batch every year and would give the others away to anyone they felt could use them. We had room to put in a small chicken coop and run. It was in that chicken coop that I had another run in with skunks. My neighbor, Gary Reed, was also raising some chickens in his yard and was equally concerned with the problem we had been having with skunks during the summer of 1986. So one night he called me and said he had just seen a skunk go into my coop. I quickly grabbed the rifle and he took out his pistol which he carried concealed in his boot. We opened the door of the coop so that we could shine a flashlight in to where the eggs were laid. We could see the skunk but he could care less and began to eat the eggs. It was then that I spotted another movement in the chicken run and saw another skunk headed for the eggs. He was a big one and so I aimed and fired even though I couldn’t really see the sights on the gun very well and he was on a dead run. The only problem was the dead run was too fast for me to make him dead before he entered the coop and jumped into the laying area. Now I had two skunks and worse they were fighting for the eggs. Gary and I decided the only thing to do was shoot them so he held the flashlight and I shot both of them inside the egg laying box. Well the box was built so we could be enter from outside of the coop. So the next job was to get them out and buried before the smell became any worse. That took some time but we were able to get it done and then went back to our houses. Little did I know what had happened in there, all of the windows were open. (I mean what else do you do on a hot August night when the house is not air conditioned?) It wouldn’t have been quite so bad had they been closed., It really wasn’t too bad for me because I only had to put up with it for one night and then early the next morning I left for BSA Camp Maple Dell for 8 days of Wood Badge training. (Marie however had to put up with it for several days until the stench finally cleared out.)
That however wasn’t the last of it for me that week either. I didn’t know that skunks loved scout camps as much as chickens because of all the free food they can dig from a fire pit at night after the boys are in bed. I didn’t discover it either until about Wednesday of the next week as I was sitting up late at night working on my Ticket for Wood Badge. A ticket is a set of goals that you will complete within two years of your week long training. It was 1 AM and the lanterns hanging from the rafters of the pavilion had all ran out of propane and gone out. So I sat at the table with my flashlight between my teeth working on my goals. I heard a faint noise coming from the direction of the fire pit and shined my flashlight out to see what it was. Yep, You are thinking correctly because it was a big skunk. Well I wasn’t too worried about it since I didn’t have any chickens or eggs to protect so I just quietly sat there watching it. I could have done that all night rather than risk moving and giving it a reason to be defensive. I Was OK also until I noticed some small eyes reflecting back the light from my flashlight further down the trail leading to the next camp. It was another skunk as if one wasn’t enough. I watched still in silence so as to not disturb and due also to pure curiosity of what might happen next. It didn’t take long to find out what would happen next since the approaching skunk was clearly the boss out of the two. He approached until he was about 10 feet away from the first skunk. He then ( I guess it was a He, I didn’t bother to check it out too closely.) raised his front paws off the ground and stamped then back down a couple of times. The first skunk finally paid attention to it but still wasn’t intimidated by it. So the second skunk repeated the act and then charged toward the first one at full speed. I too was then reacting at full speed because the first one was running directly toward me and it didn’t take much time for me to get on top of the table at which I was sitting. The skunk continued my direction passing between the legs of the table onto the pavilion behind me. The second one then stopped at the fire pit and began to did around for what really was never there, food. We were obedient when told not to put food in the fire pits and I was glad we had obeyed even though we were not told why. I then had a bigger problem though because the first skunk also stopped and now I was between the two of them. I would turn my light toward one and then the other making sure they were not going to take there dispute between them to another level which might include me. Finally to my relief the first one wandered off the pavilion and went around each of our four tents. He went into the one where my companion and I were staying but at least didn’t linger longer as a young adult might who is being fed on Sunday after church. I then put full attention to the one in the fire pit and began making small noises to scare it off. It took several minutes but he finally decided that the light near him must have been accompanied by something else which might pose a danger to him. He wandered ever so slowly away from camp into the trees and I then moved ever so quickly to bed. Later in the week on the Saturday morning as we were getting up for the last time at camp we were greeted by the smell of an outraged skunk coming to us from the direction of where the Bear Patrol was camped. Sure enough one of them had upset a skunk as he was headed to the bathroom that morning. I was just glad it wasn’t me.
Well you might think that the incidents would come to an end but no I am going to be destined to have to put up with skunks all of my life I fear.
About a year and a half after going to wood badge I became a scoutmaster. As part of my yearly routine I would take my scouts on an emergency preparedness camp. They would have three minutes from the time I got to their door to have their bags into my vehicle. Consequently we would do these without tents. One year as we were well settled down before 1 am I was awakened by movement under the cot I had taken to sleep on that night. It was low to the ground and had maybe three inches to spare after I had settled onto it. I then became aware of a small skunk emerging from under my bed. My son Jeff was laying next to me on the ground and so the little fellow had to cross over the top of Jeff. Well he had apparently learned from some of those young Adults I spoke of earlier and decided to linger longer. He went along the sleeping bag until he came close to Jeff’s mouth. I figured it was headed in to steal a kiss but rather jus t sniffed his face and then moved on around the camp. I was really hoping no one would wake up because I knew what would surely happen if they did. It did awaken Jeff but he had seen it close up enough for one night and was plenty ready to be obedient to my command to not move or make any noise. When we told the boys the next morning my fears were confirmed because they were all mad at me for not getting them up so they could have chased it.
Scout camp was not the only place where skunks liked top follow me. One year at Girl’s camp I had set my 10 foot tent over a cement table under the trees and then used my cot to the side of the table. I could cook and have everything that I needed in my tent. There was one minor problem in that the door would not shut on the tent. That didn’t really bother me though because I had used it that way for many years. I did happen to wake up though the first night around 1 am to find a skunk wandering around my tent, on the inside of it of course. I lay there quietly until it became evident that it might jump up on the table to secure some of my food. I never leave food out but that doesn’t stop the smell from making an animal think that I had. So I started to make some little noises so that it would get the idea that the place really was inhabited by a living, moving threat to his well being. He got the idea after a few anxious moments on my part and left through the door of the tent where he had entered. Well not to be outsmarted the next night or visited I went to some elaborate means to ensure that my door was inaccessible as I stacked chairs and other pieces of wood across the front of the door. It was around 1 am when I again woke and to my surprise I was outsmarted by quite a rascal of a skunk. Since he couldn’t get in through the door he instead was in the process of pushing under the edge of the tent and was almost half way inside. I didn’t hesitate to let him know of my displeasure in being outsmarted and luckily he was able to reverse direction before making it inside where getting him out would have been somewhat of a disaster. The following night I left the door open and moved all the food out of my tent and slept well all night as well as every night for the rest of the week.
Then there was the time in 2004 when I was at Mountain Dell as a Course Director for the Deseret District Timberline Course. I only had the one troop so most of the day to day activities I left up to the Scoutmaster and would spend a lot of my time cleaning up the rest of the unused camping areas. Then part of the time I spent sitting at a table under the trees near an electrical outlet doing reports and pictures of the camp on the computer. I left the Camera by my side and had several neat opportunities to photograph the wild animals that became use to my presence. I photographed curios chipmunks that ran out on the limbs at eye level to look at me. I photographed a young buck that was only 25 yards away from me and totally unaware that I was near him. I photographed a mink as he ran up and down the trunk of the tree near me. And I even photographed, WHAT WAS THAT, it ran from under the table where I was sitting and headed across the road, Yes it was a skunk of course. I hadn’t seen him approach from behind me and thank goodness was unaware that he was running past my legs until he was well past the dangerous confrontation point. I had seen skunks but he was by far the one I had been the closest too.
And last of all this year ,2005, at the same camp and only a few yards from my close encounter of the prior year I witnessed a skunk early one morning looking for food at the pavilion several yards away. I tried to photograph him but it was still a bit too dark. I didn’t see him again until two nights later when I again awoke around 1 am and could see in the brightly moonlit night that same little skunk trying to force his way into my tent trough the hole formed by where the three zippers met at the bottom of my tent. I of course had learned from prior experience not to have any food in my tent and knew there was no need for him to get trapped inside with me so I made plenty of noise to let him figure out he was an unwanted guest. He got the hint and wandered on up to the camp staff boys tents where he was able to get some treats that night. I know because I heard the dreadful tales the next morning from youth and adults.