More Wildlife Encounters

In the past week we had a few more brushes with wildlife in our backyard. First one was:

a SKUNK!

The thing we were most afraid to catch appeared in the trap early last week. It took us a day to figure out what to do. Animal control won't pick up anything other than dogs and cats. I heard about a wildlife rescue group that would come get wild animals, but they said that they've been overwhelmed with requests and don't make house calls anymore, but the lady I spoke with had some tips. Then, I called a couple of pest/wildlife control companies, and they both wanted to charge over $150 to come pick it up. Finally, I called my dad, and he spoke to my uncle who'd had a skunk problem. He used the same technique described by the wildlife rescue group without getting sprayed, so Robert gave it a try.

In case you ever trap a skunk in your backyard, here's what you do:

1. Decide if you want to take it out to the country or just release it where it is. Since we don't have a pick-up, we didn't want to risk having the car or SUV sprayed, so we decided to just let it go in the yard.
2. Get a tarp and hold it up in front of you, covering your feet.
3. Slowly approach the trap.
4. Drape the tarp over the trap.
5. Open the trap and quickly move away.

As Robert was making his way back to the house, I saw the skunk run out and head towards the fence. Success! The rescue group had suggested spraying for bugs (which we'd done once, but did again), sprinkling cayenne pepper on areas where they'd been digging, and soaking rags in ammonia and leaving them around the yard. We sprayed and sprinkled the cayenne. A couple of days later we caught a raccoon (which Robert released out in the country)...

...but nothing since then. Hooray! We've also been leaving the patio lights on to discourage them from approaching the house, and that may be helping as well. On Saturday night we saw a family of raccoons crossing the street near our house. Dang coons. At least it appears they left us alone that night.

When I went out to take a picture of the raccoon, this squirrel apparently felt I was invading his space and kept barking at me. I've got my eye on you, buddy.