We just returned from the drive-in (had hamburgers after working in the yard till dark) and brought the dog and cat around back of the house to the fenced-in area.

The dog (true to form) hopped up on the back patio and investigated where we feed the cat, which is placed under a chair to keep him out. And then I noticed another cat helping itself to our cat's food. But wait! It wasn't a cat!!!

It was Pepi LePew!!!

A SKUNK!!!

The dog was nose-to-nose with the thing and (luckily) didn't get sprayed! We've only lived here for 6 months and this is our first encounter of the potentially Stinky kind. Ugh!


DH keeps going out there to check on it. He thinks he has to "get rid of it". I keep tellin' him the thing will leave on its own. Sheesh!!! Why take the risk?

"But," he counters, "it will come back for the catfood."

"Not if we put it up on the table," I suggest.

"It will jump up there to get it," he insists.

"Skunks can't jump like cats can," I say.

Or can they?


The dog and cat are staying in the garage for the night. And I'm stayin in the house! I told DH he's sleeping with the dog if he gets sprayed.

Wow Twink, that is a sticky situation. I think you have a new pet. Feed them and they will come, and bring the family.
No suggestions here, just hope you can find some answers.

Feed the cat inside.

When I still had my dog TinyMonsters, I always had to take a little breath upon opening the door before taking him outside. We dont have a fenced yard, so I always had to take Tiny out on a leash.

If I smelled skunk, I told Tiny to hold it for a bit and we'd go out a little later. We never had a problem with skunks giving us any squirts.

We kept Tiny's dog food in the garage (in an animal safe container, even Tiny couldnt get it open, and he was the canine version of Harry Houdini for getting past locks)

One day we got a possum inside our garage. It was a juvenile possum, otherwise we'd have had bigger problems with it. As it was, it was a good thing that my dad had Tiny with him when he tried to sweep the animal out of the garage. It attacked my dad. Was flying for his face when TinyMonsters leaped forward and caught it in his mouth and killed it.

But, it's the food that was attracting animals to our house. I miss TinyMonsters now, but since he died, we havent had any problems with critters wandering up to the house.

YIKES!!! Did you get that adrenaline rush when you first realized what it was? Last week I was going to open my kitchen window when my eye caught something moving RIGHT UNDER IT. Yep, ole' stinky was cleaning up under the bird feeder. Guess they can smell any kind of food. What a nuisance!! No, I didn't open the window for awhile either. Good luck in getting rid of your new friend!

Had my windows open in Suburban Jersey, down the street a skunk sprayed, smell came in,really strong, thick, biting - PU!!

Erin!!! DS had friend attacked and bitten by an opossum. They must be mean. Kid did not smell that good.

Skunks have POOR climbing ability, but can be tenacious when they smell food.


http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/urban_w...th_skunks.html

That is from the human society.

I say hide the cat food INSIDE till pepe leaves. If not him, it would be a possum, or a bear, or other wild cats.

That's what I was gonna say, Dej. Skunks tend to spray rather than fight, and while that stink is horrible, it's not match for what some other animals would do to your pets.

Racoons for one example do not need much provoking.

We have tons of skunks by us and they love to walk through the back yard at 2 am in the morning and spray. Of course we wake up and start screaming - close the windows, close the windows!!

I did research and the only deterent for a skunk is fox pee. We haven't had a skunk spray in two years because the population of foxes are up. Unfortunately we already had one rabid fox bite the 7 year old boy down the street.

So you can either invest in a fox, take away the cat food from outside or acknowledge you have a new pet (that will bring his family).

Skunks can climb although they prefer to dig. Put the cat food and your garbage inside unless you want them to keep coming around.

Skunks can have rabies and you definitely do not want to be bit by one. Usually your pet is vaccinated for rabies but even so keep them away from the skunks.

We have had many encounters with skunks when we had chickens, could burn garbage, dog food, etc. We trapped them and they were gotten rid of. That's not fun either. We were always very careful if we had to handle a dead one. We had to deal with our dogs being sprayed as well. But better them than us.

Raccoons or any other wild animals are something to be dealt with very carefully as you never know for sure that they don't have rabies. Of course, if they are acting weird and frothing at the mouth then there is no doubt about it. Just be very careful.

By the way, skunks are accurate when spraying up to 10-12'.

I only know skunks by their smell.

That is one creature you do not want to add to your menagerie of animals!

Has the skunk come back looking for another meal? What are you going to do about feeding the cat and dog now?