I was doing some painting outside today and it was a beautiful day.

I wanted to do some caulking on the French Doors frames outside and was doing that in the dark with the help of a security light nearby. I finished up and was cleaning up when I heard an animal coming. I figured it was the neighbors cat and looked down and it was a big old skunk cruising along. He/she almost brushed up against my shoes in front of me LOL. In my 65 years I never had a skunk get that close to me. I figure he was heading to the bird feeder to see if anything tasty was on the ground. Didn't know we had a neighborhood skunk.

At least he/she did not spray me LOL.

Them black and white kitty cats sure smell bad.

LOL.

She loves you.

I remember camping years back, it was almost dark and the two of were siting in our chairs near a large tree enjoying a beverage when the largest skunk I ever saw came waddling toward us! I was thinking WTF I better run but I don't want to startle him when he said "just sit still and ignore him" which we did. The skunk circled and scratched around the tree which was maybe 3' from me then layed down beside the tree practically beside me just looking around and grooming itself. After about 10 minutes it got up and wandered off. After initially being worried I thought it was really cool!

He said they come around all the time and just ignore them, the only people who have problems are those that panic, try to scare them off throwing rocks at them etc.

We have had our cats go up to them...Touch noses, then both walk off.

About 30 years ago a stray cat decided to live in my parent's backyard. The cat was not skittish and social so we started feeding it, leaving dry food out on the back porch. One night I heard the cat making a good amount of noise eating. So I opened the door to pet Bischoff and I was quite surprised to see that I was extending my hand towards a skunk! Closed the door PDQ!

Makes one's heart skip a beat or two

I have a story I'm sure I've told here before. The short version was I was walking around the campus of an all girls college in VA with a Chinese girl when I was 19 or so, trying to work my "angle", as my buddy was already...busy with her roommate.

I heard her let our a little giddy coo as she started foward and said "Oooo, a cute kitty". I looked ahead and saw that the kitty walked funny and had a white stripe down its back...

I quickly stopped her. She didn't get sprayed, and I was unsuccessful. At an all girls school.

When I was a kid my cousin and I used to ride our bikes into town (about five miles of dark country road) in the middle of the night while on Summer vacation. One night while riding my cousin said "cat" and then purposefully steered right for it to hit it (I know... he was and still is an asshole). Turns out what he hit was a skunk and of course it did what skunks do... I laughed so hard I damned near crashed my bike. It took several tomato juice baths to get the smell out, served his ass right.

My local skunk last year hosed all my neighbors over the course of a summer. They all were distracted by one thing or another (Think IPhone) and walked right up to him. I just make sure I avoid him. Skunks have poor vision but a good sense of smell. That can cause him to approach you. He cant see you too well.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
My local skunk last year hosed all my neighbors over the course of a summer. They all were distracted by one thing or another (Think IPhone) and walked right up to him. I just make sure I avoid him. Skunks have poor vision but a good sense of smell. That can cause him to approach you. He cant see you too well.

I was wondering about their vision, thanks for the info. When I moved a little bit he/she picked up speed so maybe it did not know I was where I was. My aunt had a pet skunk decades ago and of course it had it scent gland or whatever removed. She was the only person I ever knew who had one.

I feed several feral cats in my back yard. There are 4 that come regularly and they even let me pet them a little. However, if they don't eat all the food I've put out, at night I get visitors of other types: raccoons, opossums, and skunks (even a fox once). I do try to only put out enough food for the cats.

flashguy

Neighbor has two of them. One lives under his deck, the other under his shed. They dig in my yard for something, not sure what. I don't have grubs. They dig up the rocks and put them in piles primarily under my honeysuckle bushes. Quite odd creatures. They do scare the crap out of me. Luckily I have not cornered one yet or accidentally stepped on one.

In the summer I like to grab my lawn chair and go sit out by the barn in the evenings. One moonlit night while I was sitting out there and I had a skunk walk out from underneath my lawn chair and wander across the yard. Another night I noticed, what I thought were two cats playing in front of me, turns out it was one of my cats playing with a skunk.

I've found that as long as you keep your cool and are non-threatening and quietly leave the area, they will leave you alone....it's kind of like watching a ticking time bomb though.

One of our dogs just got sprayed by a skunk last night. Stunk up the whole house - both inside and out.

As skunks get older the stripe gets wider. Some of the old ones up at Ft Drum on the old post side are solid white backed. They get a wide berth at dusk when they come out to play.

Some of us were staring into a campfire one evening out in West Texas when someone noticed some movement nearby. We'd seen a cougar that afternoon so the flashlights came on pretty quickly. A couple of security lights were attracting bugs that was attracting some skunks. We must have been in the epicenter of skunkdom because we counted 23 of those stink bombs roaming around us. That's when we decided to retreat to some upper bunks in the camp house.