What's That Smell?

Something smells in the neighborhood. What a wonderful fragrance to start the day. I had not even had my coffee. The smell is giving Annie a headache. She says it smells outside. Intrepid adventurer that I am, I decided to check things out.

I had seen Annie's labs, Bailey and Landry, watching something intently in the shed/chicken coop. There are no chickens here. The dogs like to hang out there in rainy or cold weather. They kept looking around, but refused to go near.They did voice their opinions loudly. What do they see? Nothing seemed amiss as I walked toward the shed. Then I saw something move. No, not a snake or a buzzard which I had seen a few days ago. In the back corner, behind the bicycles was a skunk.

First thing we had to get the dogs out of the way. I'm surprised they hadn't already attempted to battle the real life "Pepe la Pew". But they had apparently kept their distance. Annie herded the labs into the house. Then we looked for a number for some kind of animal control. It's not an easy number to find in the local phone book. Annie ended up calling a number in Ft. Stockton to find out some information. Thankfully since Ft. Stockton is about 1 1/2 hrs away, they were able to give her some numbers of local "animal" people. Most of her calls went straight to voice-mail. She did finally get hold of a guy who happened to be near. He was working on something in a pasture and said he could be here shortly.

So I spent the time waiting for him babysitting a skunk. First it moved around in the shed. Then it got out and wandered around, but could not figure out how to escape. Well, actually he did escape through the fence but when he saw the big dogs across the alley he decided I was better than them. Back into the shed he went. Then he got brave and tried to run to freedom along the side of the fence. Not the brightest animal in the world, I thought.

As he ran around the back of the yard, I wondered what he thought. Apparently not much I guess. As I followed him around the back yard he ultimately trapped himself. He made a mistake of crawling into a length of pvc pipe. As I stood watching the pipe, the animal control guy came in. He was the "substitute". The official animal control person is also the local bailiff and was in court. She had all the traps. Naturally. So the other guy and I decided to leave the skunk in the pipe which was 8-10 feet long. He blocked the ends with cinder blocks which Annie got a couple of garbage bags and some duct tape.

I had to wonder how safe all of this was. The plastic bags were thin and tore easily.But he managed to seal the ends of the pipe and took the unwanted guest, pipe and all away in the truck. He said he'd release it out on some farmland a couple of miles down the road. I hope the farmer doesn't mind. Then he asked if Annie wanted the pipe back. A resounding "NO!" was the answer.

Such is life in the hamlet of Ozona. I thought buzzards were looking at me for a meal the other day. Grasshoppers bounce all over the place. The one thing I have yet to see are the turkeys that walk around town unmolested. Apparently they are a common sight. Wonder what I'll find next?