Something started eating our eggs about a week ago. It took us a while to figure out what could be eating them. It wasn't until it started pooping in the coop (hee hee) that I knew it wasn't our chickens breaking their own eggs. I came in and looked up the poop online (Don't you just love google images?) and figured it had to be a raccoon or skunk. We had seen a beautiful skunk walking around a few times and found its den the other day.
All of this happened while Sean was on Mancation and I didn't feel confident taking care of the problem myself. As soon as Sean came home we went hunting. London brought her paintball gun so that we could shoot it in the hole hoping to chase out the skunk so Sean could shoot it with the 22. Well, we went to the hole and I shot it full of pink paint and no skunks appeared! They must have been out hunting as well.
Here is the den. It is hard to see but it is in a beautiful spot just right for skunks. When shooting them didn't work because we couldn't find the skunk we went and borrowed our neighbours humane trap. The first night we came up empty but the next night we moved and baited it and woke up Sunday morning to a trap filled not only with a skunk but her baby! I was so shocked. It no longer was an egg eating varmint but a beautiful momma trying to feed her baby. My protective instincts came out and I insisted on moving and releasing them so that they could live.
This is momma and the baby in the trap. It is hard to see them both. She didn't even try to spray us at this point. We covered the trap and got her moved into the back of the truck without incident. We drove about 10km away and pulled off to the side of the road.
Can you see the baby at the back now? Anyway, we got them there and held up the plastic.
Sean opened the trap and she wouldn't go out, so we had to tip them out and encourage her to leave. She didn't even rush right off and didn't try to spray at all.
Off she goes.
We let the baby out as well and momma just ignored it and moved away to the water. The little skunk followed her and tried to keep up. We watched this for some time, watching the mother get further and further away. The baby was just hanging out on the gravel road. We were worried he would get run over, so we waited to see what would happen. Well, the mother was long gone. The baby came right back to us so we decided to take him home.
This is Reeko. Doesn't he just look like he is saying hi? So cute. He is tiny. That is part of Sean's finger. He is so darling. We are wearing gloves when we hold him but he hasn't really moved much since we got home. I know people are very worried for our safety and rabies and rightly so, but when you look it up, the fact that they have rabies is greatly exaggerated.
Can you spot the momma by the water? Left hand side
Can you see the baby?
Look at the look on their faces....can we keep him? They are excited now, but wait until they have to go and dig worms!!! hee hee
2 comments:
He is adorable, but what are you going to do when he is big and starts to stink? Can you descent him?
He is soo tiny!
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