Skunks in my yard!

So I was out having a smoke this morning and a skunk came running down my fence line. I've already been having a problem with raccoons. Now skunks? It does remind me of a story that I must share. It's not climbing related but it was pretty funny.

I was working for a wilderness therapy program on the mountain above my home back in '89. We were getting skunks in our camp every morning and I even woke up with one trying to get into my pack. When I poked my head out of my bag to see what was making the noise, the little bastards butt was mere inches from my face.

The next day, just after breakfast, the students chased one of these skunks down and killed it with some rocks. Needs less to say, they all got sprayed in the chase and required a tomato juice bath and some new clothes. I decided to skin the skunk and tan his hide with the intentions of making a hat out of him. All was going well until I slipped with my knife and cut my finger, requiring stitches. When I went to the hospital and had to explain how I got my injury you can imagine the looks I got. Well, they stitched me up, but then, to my surprise, they told me I was going to have to start the RABIES shot series because skunks can carry it and I came in contact with the blood. Now if you don't know, the rabies treatment series are something like 16 shots to the stomach! And are pretty painful. I didn't think the skunk acted like it had rabies when we killed it, but the only way to test the animal was its brains and I had made that up into a tanning solution before I cut my finger. Luckily, the sheriff that came to the hospital when they reported my incident was a pretty common sense kind of guy. He let me leave the hospital without getting any shots but I did have to check in with the hospital once a week, for two months.

After all that I didn't even get to make a hat out of the hide. The dang thing sat too long and dried out without the tanning solution. Don't worry, I won't try that stunt again with the current skunk that's invading my yard. I just hope he doesn't start digging up my flowers I planted yesterday!