We caught a bear --- of sorts

You've read about our 'bear intruder'. That was quite the adventure.

The game warden mentioned smelling a skunk when he came to our rescue the night of the bear break-in.

We assumed said skunk had just been passing through and the two 'squabbled'.

Well.... seems we may have been wrong.

Having our propane pipes checked for leaks, our friend opened our crawl space door in the kids' bathroom only to get a face full of 'skunk spray smell'.  A STRONG scent of it.

He looked at me with a grimace and stated, "You have skunks living under your house!"

NICE!

He didn't see them, but he could sure smell them.

We called the county trapper who came out later that week and set up traps.

Instructions were given on how to check to see if we caught a skunk.  Walk WAY around so as not to scare the skunk else you get sprayed.  Fun Times!!!

Peering out the window the next day both traps appeared to be tripped.

Tiptoeing around the garage to come at the traps from the front, from a distance Techno and I squinted to see WHAT was in the traps.

One appeared empty, the other had a critter. Fortunately I brought my camera with my telephoto lens so we didn't have to get too close to see WHAT type critter was there.

It..... was...... a....... raccoon.














Hmmmmm.....  we managed to catch our bear after all -- sorta.  Raccoons ARE related to the bear family.  LOL!



Taking away the raccoon the country trapper left another trap along with the empty one to see what we'd catch next.

Again, we found both traps tripped.


A bit braver, I ventured out to see what we'd caught THIS time.

Much to my surprise, we had another raccoon and..... a little skunk.





Lots of instructions to the kids to 'stay clear' of the traps lest they get sprayed cascaded from Techno and myself.





The kids were out playing and I suddenly smelled..... skunk!



Certain they had gotten too close or the neighbor dog had come over and pestered the critters, I walked outside.

The traps were gone with a new 'set one' taking their place.  I guess the trapper arrived unannounced and took the critters away.  He warned us that moving the trap would result in the skunk 'defending' itself.

Phewey!  Glad I don't have THAT job!!!

The next morning the trap was empty. Guess we'll see if we catch anything else.

Maybe a fox?  A badger?  A jackrabbit?

........and the winner is........... A............ SKUNK!!!!