The visitor

I'm a bit groggy today as is Dana, and I expect the kids. Late night visitors will do that to you. At 1 am I woke to Sampson's barking as did Mo. I retrieved Mo from his crib and went to look out the back door. Didn't see anything, but thought maybe Boomer was the reason for the barking, so I let Boomer in. Sampson quieted down, Mo and I climbed into bed with Kaia and Dana. I drifted back off only to wake again at 1:30. This time Dana woke up too.

We peered out our window to see Sampson pacing the back yard and appearing quite agitated. So Dana got his rifle, and slippers and we headed through the garage to see what was going on. I told Dana that I smelled skunk, and he agreed. We look out, but being the middle of a cloudy night and not having great backyard lighting we saw nothing but the agitated dog. What we smelled told us what was out back though. We went back in, Dana to get dressed, me to go get the .22 and the flashlight from the trailer. I also helped Kaia go potty and gave her a glass of milk before sending her back to bed.

We went back out and it didn't take long for the flashlight to catch 2 beady little eyes and a white stripe. I put Sampson in the garage while trying not to puke. We quickly realized that it had to have come in from the house behind. There is a gap between the fence and retaining wall too small for the dog, but just right for a skunk or cat. The problem was: a cat can jump back up on the wall and get back through, a skunk cannot. I opened one gate and walked around the front of the house to open the other up as wide as possible. Then Dana threw some rocks at it to try to scare it toward the gate. The skunk pawed at the lattice and paced up and down the retaining wall trying to figure out how to get back up. Finally as I went in to check on the kids, it started toward the open gate, and Dana shooed it out. We waited for it to get far enough down the house before closing the gates back up and letting stinky out of the garage.

It was about 2:30 when we went back in to sleep. The house smelled of skunk and both kids were awake. After 2 cups of milk Kaia was back out. Mo on the otherhand wanted to stick his fingers in my nose, eyes, mouth and ears. I took him into his room and lay down on a blanket with him in hopes of him calming down in a not so crowded atmosphere. Finally I just took him back to bed with me. Sometime after 3 we fell asleep. The alarm at 5:30 was an awful sound! Hopefully I can get some sleep tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be tired after deskunking the dog.