Country Living: A Stinky Situation

Living in a rural area comes with a lot of advantages. However, there are also some minor inconveniences.

One of the best things about living in the country is being able to sit in the rocking chair on the front porch at night to enjoy the peace that washes over you as a breeze blows through your hair. Just when you’re enjoying the breeze,  a faint smell comes in the air— pleasant at firstbut, as the scent grows stronger, it becomes more and more noxious. As you run for the door, you spot a skunk—so cute, but oh so stinky.

Skunks are nocturnal creatures, so they mostly forage for food at night. One of the advantages of having skunks around is that they eat a lot of pests such as beetles, grasshoppers, grubs, small rodents and frogs.

The obvious downside to skunks is the horrible smell that follows them around. Their smell is their best protection against predators. Think about it, humans are their biggest threat, but we don’t want to have anything to do with a skunk. That does not mean there are no animals that will attack a skunk. Even a dog will attack a skunk to protect its home.

Recently, my husband went to the house to let the dogs out a little earlier in the morning than he usually does. It was still dark, and he did not see the skunk in the yard, but our dogs did. Our dogs are fiercely protective of their home and us. So, with little thought of the consequences, our smallest dog Punky, a dachshund, attacked the skunk. The dachshund was immediately sprayed, but the other two dogs Xena and Dodgebulldog mixesinstantly jumped into the fray to protect their “mama.” Yes, the dachshund rules the house, but she also gives lots of loving to the other two dogs like any good mama. The skunk was finally dispatched and our home was safe again.

The skunk incident was kind of tragic. If my husband had not needed to be somewhere early, he would not have let the dogs out while it was still dark, and the skunk could have finished foraging for bugs and been on its merry way long before the dogs were ever let into the yard. There would have been no harm done.

The lesson in this is skunks own the night, and they were here first.