He's back!

As you might have gathered, I was a bit tired last night and looking forward a good nights rest, so we could do it again today. No rest for the wicked they say, and last night was no exception.

It started with Curly on his last outside run for the night, telling us that all was not right at the Cat house. I went to see what was going on and smelled the results of our little buddy getting enough of a scare to cause him to employ his chemical defense. I made Curly come back in the house, and picked up the shotgun and a "Q Beam" to go look. Sure enough the Skunk had moved back into his bed to spend the night. I had seen Lexie in the window as I went by. She hid when I went into the building. I turned on the inside light, and then went for the nearly depleted Wasp Spray. When I returned I gave him the remaining spray in the can, but it was just not enough.

My "Havahart" skunk trap was suffering from old age, the pan had come off the trigger. I attempted to fix it, but was not as successful as I should have been. It was reset in a natural runway among all the horse tack and an old chest in the hopes that we could catch the critter and put an end to all this irritation once and for all.

I went back into the house fuming, but not mad enough to shoot him inside the building- yet! I went to the hanger and retrieved a jug of Clorox and a spray bottle. My goal of course was to drive him out of the building and blast him with the shotgun at a suitable distance from the house.

Well, I could drive him all over the building, but not out. I brow beat him so bad with the spray bottle that he just humped up in the corner and I ended up thumping him with a PVC pipe with a elbow and two foot long piece pointed down. I finally drove him back to his bed, which I had removed the blanket he had been sleeping on, but couldn't get him out the door. By this time my eyes are burning so badly from the fumes that I kept having to go outside to clear them. I went back to the house and asked Karen how bad the skunk smell was on me. I assumed that it was skunk that was making my eyes water and now I believe that it was the Clorox. I didn't want my clothes to smell like skunk, so I stripped down to my "Hanes" and boots, got my BB gun and went back. At this point I am getting close to blasting him in the building and facing the problems later. Not sure I want to be in a rock room with a full load of 20 gauge rattling around, close, but still not over the edge.

I went back in with the BB gun and pumped it up just enough to sting, but not penetrate, and shot him in the butt. Good for a flinch, but nothing more. He was even past the point of threatening me. I shot him four or five more times, and still could not get him to run. So I just took the PVC pipe and started poking him. I finally poked and prodded him out of his corner and out the door. The sucker turned and tried to come back in, but I persisted and slowly herded him out the door and down the fence of the corral, around the corner and past the corner of the rock fence of my property. He was moving quite slow up to that point. I took the light, and my eyes off him long enough to climb over the fence, figuring to run him down the hill towards the creek and then shoot him. Good plan with only one hitch, when I got over the fence, I was alone. Nothing but me and a loaded shotgun. Picture a half crazed, frustrated, shotgun wielding guy in a pair of tidy whiteys and gum boots cussing like a sailor, and you have a good picture of me at the realization that it is still not over, not finished.

I will let you know if the Clorox is able to bleach out a Skunks fur when I next see him. I'm pretty sure that I will.