My Up Close and Personal Moment With a Skunk

dog-answers.com

Last Saturday, I was walking over to a shed to get the weed-eater out so I could trim the front grass. As I approached the shed with the key for the padlock in my hand, I heard some rustling in the undergrowth of the low cover plant plants next to the shed.

I could see the leaves move as something was there and walked right up to see what was going on, thinking there were Quail with their young rooting around in the cover. Being next to the Jordan River Parkway that runs north and south through the Salt Lake valley right over the fence, there is an amazing array of wildlife around. After moving here in 2013, we had quite a battle with two female raccoons that got under the trailer, wintered over, and had their young under the trailer in the spring.

I walked right up to where the leaves were moving, not more than a couple feet away and looked down, almost standing over whatever was making the noise. All of a sudden the tail of a skunk rose up out of the cover as it turned and aimed directly at me! I think my heart stopped and didn’t have time to consider whether to jump, run or deflect as I slowly stepped backwards trying not to move suddenly. I thought I was a gonner for sure, but it held it’s fire as I kept backing up. After getting far enough away, I thanked it by throwing some boards towards it to get him to go away. I’ve never been sprayed by a skunk and have no desire to find out what it’s like. That was one close call! From now on, I'll investigate from a distance.