MUMMY'S SKUNK

So, after daycare yesterday, the baby, dog, and I hung outside awhile. I was able to push bedtime all the way to about 9pm! This hardly ever happens. We are usually all in bed by 7:45pm, so I was delighted to say the least. Around 9:45pm, the baby and dog were sleeping, and I was watching tv. I smelled something and instantly jumped up to shut the air conditioner off. THAT DAMN SKUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I opened up my bedroom door and the smell hit me like a ton of bricks! I wasn’t sure if it sprayed, or just walked really close to the house. I didn’t think it sprayed because the smell wasn’t as bad as I know it would be. It was BAD, but not so bad that it permeated every single room in the house. I was able to contain it to the bottom floors. I immediately closed all windows and put towels at the bottom of every door, including my bedroom. I shut my bedroom up pretty tightly, so that we could sleep in peace without skunk filling our noses. I turned the fan on over the air conditioner, which turned out to be fine. I still have some of the de-skunk spray left from the last debacle, so I sprayed around the house. I called my mom to prepare her for our arrival, but I was able to contain it enough that we didn’t have to leave the house. I flipped on the front light and back light too. I’m hoping keeping the lights on every night will help to deter the skunks. After about 45 minutes, I finally crawled back into bed and slept.

This morning, I was so afraid to open up my bedroom door. When I did, I smelled NOTHING. Of course, I could have just been used to it by that point. I put the dog on the leash and took her out front to pee. I wasn’t risking her going into the yard until I had a chance to inspect it. Afterwards, I slowly opened up the back door, stuck my nose out, and sniffed. Nothing. Whew. I did notice a dog treat of Kodie’s on the porch, which is probably why the skunk even came onto our property. I had NO idea she didn’t eat it yesterday and brought it outside  From now on, I’ll be triple checking the yard/porch to ensure she doesn’t sneak any treats out behind my back. Every night before bed now, I’ll be closing up the entire house and putting towels at the foot of the doors just in case another skunk happens to pass by. I am so not happy with adding additional steps to our bedtime routine, but I’ll do anything at this point. I have the number for animal control, which I’ll be calling later. I’m hoping they can set a trap to catch this fucker. I’m also going to be looking for some plastic, decorative fencing to put up around my shed. Kodie has been digging holes around it and I have a hunch that skunks might be living underneath of it. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t want to risk it. I just want Kodie to stay the hell away from that shed until we have it checked out.

This entire thing is so stressful. I contacted my landlord to see of any known skunk issues. He hasn’t responded yet, but I’m hoping he can shed some insight. There is no way in hell I am going to continue living here after our lease is up (in two effin years) if we are constantly battling skunks. It is absolutely insane and makes me miss city living. I’m trying to work with the situation though to accommodate that we do live near a wooded area and these things will happen. I just can’t believe it hasn’t even been three weeks and we’re dealing with it AGAIN. I’m just glad the dog wasn’t hit and the skunk didn’t actually spray. I can’t afford to continually de-skunk my house. It takes an entire day and I can’t constantly miss work to de-funk my home. Let’s hope by taking additional precautions, we can avoid another attack!

I’m going to go grocery shopping after work and then head up to see if I can get a cheap solution to keep Kodie away from the shed. The baby has a doctor’s appointment at 6:15pm. I’ll need to hurry to get him home, changed, and fed before we head out. Before I get him from daycare though, I want to go home to ensure the house is still okay. I left the windows closed when I left this morning, so it probably needs aired out a bit. All I know is I am so freaking glad that I made the rule to NOT let Kodie outside after dark. Luckily for us, it stays light until 9pm, so she gets to pee one final time before bed. I have the leash now to take her out front in the early morning hours with the lights on outside, so she isn’t in the backyard. Sigh…Let’s just hope this is the beginning of the end of this nightmare!