I found some broken eggs this morning while walking between my house and Mom’s house. I just assumed it was an opossum or something so I set a trap, only to find my self face to face with a skunk.

Tessa and I were worried about some animal getting eggs and eating them. We went by Mom’s house and found where there was a burrow under the small dome behind her house. I assumed it was an opossum since I had one in the chicken coop about two weeks ago.

I went to the office and got our smaller trap so that we could trap the animal next time it came out. Tessa met me at Mom’s house and we put a couple eggs in the trap as bait. Then, we left.

Around 8:00 pm, we decided to go check it out. As we got closer to the trap, the horror of what I saw came clearer and clearer. A skunk was trapped in my trap, and right by my Mom’s house! What do you do when that happens? Well, you Google the problem, right?

Website that helped

Nice YouTube video example of what I did

So, I did what they said, I gathered up my blue tarp, flashlight, and shotgun (just in case payback was in order). When I got to the house, I set up the flashlight so that I could see, then slowly approached the cage with my blue tarp. Fortunately, the wind was blowing in just the right direction so that the tarp was held up a bit. I gently set the tarp on the cage, then took off running.

A minute later, I walked back up to it. I used a stick to fold the tarp out of the way of the door, then left for a few minutes. I finally gathered up enough bravery to walk up to the cage. I looked inside for just a second to see the skunk staring back at me. So, I slowly put my hand on the cage, and tried to unlatch the door. The first time I grabbed the gate, I dropped it. That was the loudest noise I’ve heard in a long time. But, the skunk just kept looking at me, I guess trying to decide what to do.

Finally, I got the door opened and clamped. At this time, I was gone. I ran straight back to the house. Maybe I should have stayed around to shoot the skunk, but I’d had enough for one day.

I was amazed that it didn’t even smell at all. Usually when I have been around skunks they smell the whole time. I was lucky.

New rule: Never put a trap close to the house!