Day Six of the Great Skunk War

That, my friends, is what a skunk trap looks like after it has been OVERTURNED, and stripped of it's bait by the skunk you are trying relentlessly to capture.

The more knowledge we gather about skunks and the more we think about the situation, the more we think that he is a she.

The plan tonight?

Another chicken finger (with peanut butter) in the bigger cage. My dad and I will both be on the clubhouse to observe, assuming it doesnt go in the trap, and then I will try to follow it for as long as I can. Then we will move the trap outside of the enclosure and put it where we think it has best chance of being used. It will also be weighted down with a rock.

What we think happened is that it went in to get the chicken wing, but was bigger than the cage, so when the door closed it just thrashed about until the cage was off. Tonight that shouldn't happen.

Come on back later for Part 2, after the skunk's 9:15 excursion.



UPDATE!!!

Part Two: Proceeding With Caution

Once again, 9:15.  Only this time, he stayed in back of the bush that blocks his hole for a few minutes.  May dad and I were both on the clubhouse this time, anticipating where he would go.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what the skunk was planning on.

He stayed in the enclosure for a good 3-5 minutes. Tonight we could barely see him. It had rained, so the leaves were still wet making him harder to hear.  He managed to silently make a tunnel through the leaves that plugged the fence hole, and then, hugging the fence, moved around the back of the shed.

His only mistake was hitting the bush that overflows the enclosure; that caused both of us to think he might have gotten out undetected.  After that I jumped down and moved into the open part of our yard behind the shed area, trying to see if he was around there.  Right before I jumped down, however, I saw a patch of black run down the length of the property line between our trees and the neighbor's yard.  I gave a big point for my dad as I ran around to get in my new (out-of-spray-range) position.

A few seconds later I heard two small whimpers from my porch.  It seamed that my mother managed to come outside undetected as well.  As we did the first time this happened, both of us ran to where she was sitting on the deck.

The object I saw running down the property line was indeed that furry little bastard.  He then came along the deck area, only to retreat around the time my mom saw him.

After that he vanished like a fart in the wind.

He was expecting us this time, and he was very careful to change directions, thinking we might have been over where he was last night.

The new, larger trap is outside the enclosure tonight, so once again we turned on the security lights.  We don't want any other animals getting themselves caught in the trap, and we know that the SKUNK isn't scared of the light anymore.I'm not sure how well that trap is going to work now, because I'm fairly certain the skunk realizes that.....



I will check again when I go to bed if anything looks disturbed...which it probably won't.  Come back tomorrow as the Skunk Saga has officially reached a week.


(Actually, we think the skunk was there last summer as well, but he was undetected, and we do not rule out the summer before.  Last year our dog was no longer around, and the year before last he wasn't going that far out in the backyard.  The theory behind this is that, since this was the perfect burrow last year, the skunk isn't willing to give it up, not when it is this close to the time it needs to lock down for the winter. )