#%$(*!!! Skunks

Some of you may recall I posted a thread back around New Year's that I had a skunk living under my porch. The critter was sitting under our furnace intake/exhaust (cuz it's warm) and firing off stink bombs, that would then get sucked into the furnace and evenly distributed around the house.

Well, it took a week to trap the bastid but we got him and sealed up the access holes. A week later, the stench returned and when I went outside, I found a big hole, dug from the inside out. Yep, there was still another one in there that we didn't know about. We trapped him within 24 hours.

A week of bliss. The stench was fading, we washed all our clothes, linens, etc. And then we got the whiff of number three. Nope, he wasn't under our porch, but he wanted in desperately.

So my FIL and I skunk proofed the perimeter of the porch as best we could (considering the ground is mostly frozen). This guy couldn't get in. But he would hang out on our porch, firing off stinkers and then it would either waft in through our 35-year old windows, or get sucked back into the furnace.

A week of having live traps (four of them) on and around my porch. The bastid beat three of them at various times, eathing the bait but able to get out. So I spiked the bait to make sure that if he beat the traps, he'd meet his demise regardless. And then we got him.

Another week and a half of no smell, and then last night, WHAM! I went outside and footprints were everywhere in the snow. I found a hole, that was dug from the inside out (again) surfacing in the roots of the cedar bush. I filled it in with crushed limestone and added water (that combined with the -20C will make sure it's impassable) and called the trapper. I also left a litte spiked dinner for him. This a.m., he didn't take the bait, but he was around.

Fecking hell!!!! We'll get him tonight (I hope).