Pepe’ has left the building!

I can finally talk about this.  I’ve been holding my breath (literally).  Give me a few more days and I’ll even laugh about it.

We’ve had a skunk living under our home for over a month.  We couldn’t see it.  We couldn’t bait it out.  We couldn’t find any animal control business that would take care of it.

Western Spotted Skunk

So Don bought a trap.

We didn’t smell it all the time.  He only let’er rip when he felt threatened.  The only way he could have gotten under the house is when the door to the water pump was opened.  The pump only makes a sound when our water pressure drops – like when a toilet flushes or we run water in the sink or tub.  That’s when we smelled him.

I even tried leaving the door open after dark (skunks are nocturnal) and stomping on the floor to see if I could get him to leave.  He also let’er rip when I stomped and I think he stayed just to spite me.

Handling skunk with 8′ pole

Neither one of us were willing to crawl in past the water pump to look for him.  So we used a long stick to place the trap as far in as we could.  We had it there for over a week before he braved getting close to that loud, scary, pump to see what smelled so delicious to him/her.  It was a piece of raw turkey.  Curiosity also kills skunks.

skunk in 7″ x 7″ x 20″ trap

Western Spotted Skunks are smaller than the striped variety.

Read more about them here: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/species/mammals/weasels_skunks_badgers_otters.asp

I’m SO happy he’s gone.  I will be even happier when I am sure he didn’t leave a wife behind.

(So will Mom and Dad because they are scheduled for a visit soon.)

Anybody got some industrial strength Febreeze?