A quick recap of Night 19 and Days 20 and 21:
Night 19:
That night we had one trap from Critter Control, and our own Havaheart Trap. Both were put out and baited, the CC trap being placed at the 'Blind Trap' spot, directing in front of the hole out of the enclosure.
Day 20-Thursday
The lone son of the original skunk (Mama Skunk) wasn't going down without a fight. I guess it runs in the family. The next morning we found that our trap had been robbed of it's bait...but had not been set off. This was inconceivable...however, I quickly deduced what had happened.
Since it had proven effective, I left that trap in the exact same spot it was when it caught the first skunk the night before, however, I had not filled in the hole made by the skunk trying to escape. The final skunk had used those holes to get under the trap, and take the bait out through the bottom of the cage.
Slippery bastard.
That night it was re-baited and we tried again, but with only our cage. Critter Control said they needed their cage elsewhere, and since we had one that had caught one before...they decided we could be the sacrifice.
He came out later than the normal 9-9:15 range, something totally understandable for a young skunk that is now on his own. However, he was frightened by the lights we used to check on what he was doing, and he retreated back into the hole. So we decided to leave it alone until around mindnight.
It was around that time that we came out to check, and noticed the bait had been taken yet again. The skunk had dug underneath to get the bait.
Un-be-lievable.
I carefully took the trap out of the enclosure, re-baited it with a large chunk of meatloaf that was sitting inside a small dish (so it could NOT be pulled through the holes of the cage), and relocated it a bit closer to the burrow, where we believed the skunk to be.
Day 21-Friday
The Next morning the was no change to our trap. It was still set, bait and all.
That night, we moved the cage into the 'blind trap' position at the hole in the fence, this time with a board underneath it. (Clever, eh?)
And, around midnight on Saturday morning, when we went out to check the cage...there he was. The final little soldier had been captured. The war was over...and we had won.
Day 22-Today
Critter Control did not arrive first thing in the morning, however. In fact, they still had not arrived by 11 o'clock. We thought it cruel to make the skunk spend his last few hours of life cooking in the hot sun, so my dad briefly made an effort to put up an umbrella nearby.
However, as my dad approached...the tail went up.
No shade for the skunk.
Luckily the CC man (not John, John would have been on time) came not-too-long after that.
Within a few minutes the skunk was on board the truck...and the truck drove off with the last of our determined enemies.
22 Days, 7 skunks, 6 cages, and 3 Critter Control Vists later...the war has finally come to a close.
However, the trap is still set tonight...just to be safe.
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