Stinky Start

Perhaps it’s the Skunk of Christmas Past.

Every year on the twenty-third of December, since our very first weekend here in our new home, we’ve been treated to the powerful but not overwhelming odor of essence of skunk coming through the heater vents.

That first year was a doozy. It was twenty-eight degrees outside. Both daughters and their beaus were here helping us unpack moving boxes, hang curtains, and organize the kitchen. During a well-deserved after-dinner rest, we watched a movie on a small black and white TV in the partially furnished living room. A movement outside caught my eye. I saw a black cat digging in the dirt between the Juniper hedge and the French door. “It’s just a cat,” I said. “Oh, how darling! The kitty has two white stripes down her back,” I reported as I stood to get a better look. “She’s turned her back to us and is digging furiously in the earth, sending dirt our way… and oh, she’s lifting her tail and, oh, no! We’ve been skunked!”

I don’t know where she lives, though I suspect she’s moved in under a garden shed we had installed soon after the last moving boxes were flattened and passed along to someone else who was about to move. I’ve seen her (I call her Skunky) only a handful of times, but have recognized her aromatic presence innumerable times through the heater vents. 

Maybe she's still upset that we encroached on her territory. She had the house and yard to herself for almost a year and a half after the former owner died here. The children didn’t get around to selling their childhood home for quite some time.

Shortly after the move, we had a heater duct cleaner service come. Using a camera on a long flexible cable, Mr. Oren showed us pictures of the inside of one of the ducts. Evidently, it had been appropriated by Skunky as a nest for her family. The fiberglass insulation inside the duct must have made for a scratchy beginning for her newborn kitts. They’d all made quite a mess of the duct. Mr. Oren said the best thing to do was to make sure they’d all moved out (they had) and crimp and seal off that duct so no air would move through it again. This he did.

When I see her lumbering along at dawn or dusk in the back yard, I smile. I like that she feels at home. I do too. Is it possible to live amicably with such a powerful neighbor? I think so. It requires getting accustomed to the scent that is akin to marijuana smoke, but stronger, and hoping she lives up to her job description: Good ratter. Blessings on your sleek black and white body, Skunky, and may the Source be with you and the wind blowing the other way.

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Oh, dear. It’s been nearly two weeks since our annual scentual bath and the skunky scent is so over-powering that my eyes are streaming and my nostrils and trachea burn. I'm in the master-bedroom, where humans sleep! I’ve made a circuit of the outside and see there are no openings. She is not under the house. We can see the entirety of the well-lit dirt and floor joists from the boiler room. Also, there's no smell of skunk there. 

I surmise that she’s living under the stairs that go from outside our bedroom door to the lower garden. The scent is strongest inside downstairs, not outside the house, and it’s strongest of all at the bottom of the indoor stairs. In fact, I’ve narrowed it down to the top of the wall at the bottom of the stairs. 

Early on, I hung a photo of a Kiva ladder on that wall. The earth tone photo used to hang in my healing room at the old house. Just above the frame looks to be about level with the landing of the outdoor steps. I think she must’ve burrowed under that landing and has built a cozy nest right up against the foundation - just on the other side of the Kiva photo and the wall above it.

At the end of the hallway downstairs is an intake filter for the heater for the bedroom side of the house. EVERY room smells of skunk from that one stinky wall!

We had an estimator come give us a bid for closing off the under-the-stairs-access to critters. The fellow said he could see her nest. My hunch was right. The nose knows.

We have to trap her humanely and be sure there are no kitts in the nest before sealing off access. I left a message with animal control and vector control and expect a call back this week.  We hope they may be able to relocate her to Knowland Park or somewhere comfortable…. and far away.

Not sure if it helped, but just to follow-up on a suggestion I saw online about spraying predator's urine around the yard, my husband and I both peed near the entry to Skunky’s burrow. I hope she takes the hint. Not that we'd treat her as prey... although could we eat prey and still love?  (*g*r*o*a*n)

It’s been a stinky start to this new-fangled year of 2019. 

Here’s hoping yours is less dramatically aromatic and filled with JOY. 

(Now, THAT makes scents!)