Lovely, the faint yet distinct odor of skunk

[pokerfan]

wafting though my windows.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Skunks always go down fighting.

If one of those little buggers gets run over, he always has his final revenge.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I've even smelled them here in an urban area...

Just an ordinary neighborhood, far from any wilderness...

:shrug:

[pokerfan]

5. This is semirural

Houses are spread out. One probably wandered up from the river and one of the neighbor's dogs most likely got sprayed.

[Kali]

8. skunks and coyotes are almost as well adapted to humans as mice and rats

they survive quite well in urban and suburban areas

[pokerfan]

9. Don't forget the other little dudes

[Kali]

10. true, although we don't get them around here all that much

to freaking dry I think.

[Kali]

3. that's nuthin'

my kitchen a few months ago

[MonkeyFunk]

4. aww, what a cutie!

I have one that looks like that living under my house. she's lived there for years.

We have a detente - she's friends with the cats, the dog just barks at her, but doesn't go after her, and she doesn't spray.

[Kali]

7. yeah it is kind of cool to have something like that cruising through the house, but

I can't afford to feed it expensive cat food and my dogs haven't reached that understanding - I really hate waking up to a close up blast of that coming in the bedroom window.

Also we are in an endemic rabies area so I have that to be nervous about. I caught one and relocated it to a spot that had water, we killed one and there seems to be yet another around (at least) and they have all found their way in to the cat food.

Oh well. It will be time to close up the house soon enough.

[marzipanni]

11. We had a little visitor in our yard Sunday night

When I let our dog out she didn't want to come in . My son went out and found her staring up into a small tree at an opossum, so he climbed the tree and took some photos.

Many years ago one came into the kitchen through the dog/cat door in the middle of the night, and was bumping our old dog's bowl as it licked the crumbs. The dog barked when he went to see who was messing with his bowl, and I had to hold him back because he wanted to chase it. I closed the doors into the kitchen and let it find its way out.

[Beausoir]

16. Cool photo. n/t

[jobycom]

14. That's adorable. Better you than me, though!

I always run into them jogging. My two favorite incidents were jumping over a little one who materialized under my feet, and seeing one twenty yards away, quietly foraging near a herd of deer. It was one of my more insightful moments. I realized that I would startle the deer, and they would startle the skunk, who was far enough from the nearest brush to be nervous about me. So I stopped. A moment later a car passed, which scared the deer, who scared the skunk, who saw me and turned tail in my general direction. I chose to jog the other way rather quickly, and the little critter felt he'd gotten his point across, and waddled back into the brush.

[Thirtieschild]

6. And sometimes the strong odor of skunk wafts in through an open door

Like in the middle of the night a skunk walks past your open sliding glass door, your dog barks and the skunk shoots the door, the dog, the rug and everything within reach in the bedroom. Lovely way to wake up.

[SeattleGirl]

12. And sometimes the smell of skunk is actually the smell of marijuana

growing in someone's basement. No kidding. When our neighbor was busted for having over 500 plants (plus unregistered guns and fake ID making equipment), the sherrif's officer told us that. I had no idea. But they said, yes, when they are airing it out, it smells like skunk.

[Beausoir]

15. Real up close and personal...they smell like burning electrical equipment.

PU.

[Arkansas Granny]

18. The one that sprayed so close to my house had a smell that

reminded me of sulpher. That's the closest I've been to an actual spraying incident.

[Kali]

20. and coat your mouth with an oily, gagging sensation

the distant aroma is like marijuana, but nobody who ever got an up close shot would mistake THAT for sweet weed.

[Arkansas Granny]

19. There is a similarity, but once you've smelled the real thing you

can easily tell the difference.

[JCMach1]

13. eau de Oklahoma

[Arkansas Granny]

17. I'm glad you only have the faint odor of skunk. One sprayed close

enough to my house a few summers ago that we "enjoyed" the odor for days. The initial blast was so strong that it literally brought me straight out of bed at 3:00 a.m. I was sure my dog had gotten sprayed since she was whining and rubbing her muzzle in the grass when I went to check on her, but she was just reacting to the smell. It had apparently sprayed the plants at the corner of the porch where she stays at close range so she got to spend a few days in the house. After 3 days the smell could still be overpowering when the sun moved around to that area of the yard. I finally found a spray that was supposed to be a natural mosquito repellent made with cedar oil and it worked pretty good at deodorizing the sprayed area. We've had others come calling since then, but none of them have sprayed.