The Saga of the Unwanted Skunk

Dena found, the day before we arrived, that a little of the local wildlife had paid her a visit under the Bunkhouse. And...it was only natural...that in moving into his new abode, he wanted it to smell right; so, he used a little skunk deodorizer!

Dena warned us of this problem, but she had aired the place out and when we arrived, we barely noticed. Dena had kicked the skunk out, and thought she had found and blocked all his ingress places. She hired some $4 a minute trappers to set a trap and catch that skunk, which they did, and left the trap, baited, under the Bunkhouse. In the meantime, Dena had read on the Internet (she can be dangerous on the web...WAY too much information for Dena!) that if you played a radio under the house, then it would keep skunks away , and they especial hated the Spanish stations. So Dena set a radio under the Bunkhouse that was playing a Spanish station.

Friday night Patty Browning and Shida Rad were in the room just over the radio which was under the Bunkhouse. Dena had forgotten to turn it off and the girls figured that Dena wanted it to stay on. Unfortunately, some mariachi music at midnight is not conducive to sleep; so, Patty dragged herself out of bed , grabbed a flashlight and went down into the studio to the " under the house" access panel. Patty is made of intrepid stuff and opened it...crawled in a short way, scanned with the flashlight for any unwanted company, and then pulled the radio up to the door to turn it down. She went bad to bed where Shida mentioned that she looked a little dusty. HA!

Unfortunately for Patty, she didn't turn it down enough ; so, she made a second trip down to the crawlspace! Everyone wondered why she didn't just unplug the radio, but, you see, she thought Dena WANTED the music playing all night! Well, it was damn funny and damn lucky she didn't meet into our friendly skunk while crawling around under the Bunkhouse. Dena said that she had to pay those big, strong trappers $4 a minute to do what Patty would do for free! She wished Patty had come a little earlier and saved her some money!

Well, the good news is...the skunk trap left by the trappers worked...the bad news is...it worked sometime during the night Saturday night, because the skunk was in the trap Sunday morning. And he stayed there being perfectly well-bahaved until early Sunday evening. We had all had our Sunday meal at Dena's house and the Bunkhouse crew went back to the Bunkhouse to go to bed. It wasn't more than 10 minutes later when they were back. Either the trapped skunk or a relative had left some nice, fragrant deodorizer for the girls!

This is where we separated the women from the wussies! They managed to air it out by using open containers of vinegar and boiled coffee grounds, but Judy Beard and Shida Rad decided to join us at Dena's house. Dena and I were kicked out of our bed and used my inflatable bed which was inflated in the living room. It was an experience!

After we had all gone on Monday except for Diane Furr, Dena had decided to pull the skunk out and send him to skunk heaven. Now, understand, the trappers were more than willing to do that for her, but Dena had an objection to paying $250 to come get the trap and $150 to dispose of the skunk. SO... Dena had a hometown rancher's cure for a nosy skunk! She was going to deck herself out in some goggles, a rain slicker (or garbage bag...whichever worked best) , a nose mask and then she was going to blow his little butt to the great skunk happy hunting ground in the sky. Fortunately, for her, her neighbor Hector pulled the skunk out and assassinated the poor thing for her! I I REALLY wish I had stayed long enough to get a picture of

DENA WENMOHS - SKUNKBUSTER!

The perils of living on a ranch!