Another perk of living in the country is wildlife all around. It is usually lots of fun and exciting to see, except when the wildlife is black with a white stripe- a polecat, aka skunk. Well, last week we had seen three skunks in the yard, and one was an albino, wandering around in the day. If you see a skunk in the day, that is bad news. They are nocturnal animals and this usually means a sick skunk. In addition, the skunk family was near the house and seemed unafraid of humans. Bella went out one late afternoon, saw Mr. Skunk, and took off away from me. Bella made a quick grab for her prey, then flipped, and immediately began to rub frantically on the ground. It only took a nonosecond for the miasma of burning rubber smell (that is how it smells to me) to reach me. I had to grab Bella and run for the house and into the shower. Everything reeked- Bella, me, the house, everything. I put out those electric air filters, lit candles, washed everything washable that had touched her, and sprayed Febreeze on Bella. Yes, Febreeze. I read the label and it seems to be non toxic- made from corn. It helps a lot. I don't know if anyone else has tried it, but it mitigates the odor better than hydrogen peroxide, I can tell you for a fact.
Anyway, over the next few days we saw the skunks again in the day. I made a call to the vet and left a message with the State people. The concensus was that they were probably rabid and needed to be killed. How upsetting. I hate to kill anything, even bugs. But Jon went out when we saw one dudring the day and shot it. There was another the next day, and another the next. A friend was talking to me about the sadness of having to kill a living creature, but she did say something probably quite true. "If they are sick and suffering it is not bad to put then out of their misery." The State people (in charge of Rabies, I guess) told me that over 50% of the skunks tested around here in Middle Tennessee are rabid. Interestingly enough, only 20% of the bats are rabid, and there aren't any rabid raccoons here. There are plenty of them in East Tennesseee though. By the time we killed the third one, I was totally paranoid, and had Bella revacinated. She had her shot for Rabies in March, but I wanted to be really sure. I asked the State guy how skunks got rabies, and he said that they give it to each other. I hope that there aren't any more around. Watch out for skunks in the daytime.
