Kanga has the Polecat Blues

This week, my daughter Kanga's German Shepard, Conan had a confrontation with a skunk that was probably planning to dine on his leftover kibble. Unfortunately, this occurred just outside Kanga's open bedroom window.

The next day, Kanga called to tell me about it. She and my SIL had bolted from the bedroom into the kitchen as though mindlessly running from an explosion, which I guess they were, as the overpowering odor poured into the room. At that point they were groggy and bewildered. But, as the pervasive smell trailed after them throughout the house, the truth of the situation became clear.

There was no sleep that night. The next day, when K called me, she was still scrubbing, laundering, or throwing away everything in that bedroom. She was in a blue, blue mood.

Still, when I asked about Conan, expecting that he'd been thoroughly skunked, she burst into laughter. Conan, who has some skunk experience under his collar, apparently feels that discretion is the better part of valor, so after confronting and annoying the skunk, he beat a hasty retreat around the corner of the house escaping the crucial moment. Only the tip of his tail was a bit smelly!

Skunks, like coyotes and ravens are thriving as civilization encroaches upon their habitat. They prowl at night eating whatever they can find from earthworms and crickets to pet food to hens eggs and chicks. A skunk will jump on the back of a nesting hen, kill her and partake of her eggs and/or chicks at leisure.

E. had penned a little hen and her brood for safety, but still, a skunk reached through the wire to tear the wing from this little hen when she was a chick. It managed to snag and kill another baby, but of course, couldn't get either chick through the wire Little Lefty is about half grown now and looks rather pathetic with so many adult feathers coming in. This is her wingless side. She won't be able to roost in the tree with the rest of her brood, but she'll learn to sleep in the hen house with the non-fliers like this little Cochin hen.
I have quite a bit more to say about skunks including E's method of skunk disposal, but it can wait until next post.