I Had a Skunk Encounter
Positively Drenched Tonight!... Yet another fun little trip to the lake tonight, this time I came prepared with a head-mounted HD video camera. Unfortunately, those do require a LOT of light and a lot of steadiness. Anyway, onto the story.
I got suited up in my sprayed clothing and headed down to the lake at about 10 p.m., looked around in the usual places but coming up short. I decided to walk a little further onto the golf course area and behold, a cute little teenaged skunk sniffing about for grubs! He didn't notice or care about my flashlight, apparently, possibly mistaking it for natural ambient light, because he didn't notice me until I was right up on him. I gave chase, of course, and got him cornered by a pond, trying to talk to him in low calm tones to see if he'd relax a little. He dodged my tail grabs but sprayed me right in the face (splashing my goggles) before bolting off to the nearest storm drain, where I barely managed to get his tail as he desperately squeezed inside.
This left me in a stalemate like the last skunk that did this, and I didn't want to tug really hard since that might hurt him, and so I had to let him go, but not before ensuring he squirted my arm a couple more times.
The second skunk was more fun. I chased that one down to the other side of the same pond, where she was cornered. I got her by the tail of course and suspended her in mid-air, which is how I could tell she was a female since I saw her chest. I poked her rump gently to provoke a few good sprayings which really saturated my arms, my face, my neck, shirt, and pants. She had quite a bit of musk in her, I was really impressed with the quantity of Eau de Mouffette perfume I got her to squirt ;)
I let her go of course, thanking her for the thorough stinking, and I walked back to the car with a goofy grin on my face, reeking to high heaven. I did manage to get the first skunk chase entirely on video, but the second was botched by the close proximity to the skunk as well as the position of the camera (way too high up). It's a shame too because she really let me have it and I'm sure the camera would've caught it.
I did film a bit of a "damage assessment" though, showing off my sprayed-up arms, face, and the pants and shirt. I've uploaded them to YouTube and kept them unlisted, so I'll send them privately to anyone who asks nicely. :)
I got suited up in my sprayed clothing and headed down to the lake at about 10 p.m., looked around in the usual places but coming up short. I decided to walk a little further onto the golf course area and behold, a cute little teenaged skunk sniffing about for grubs! He didn't notice or care about my flashlight, apparently, possibly mistaking it for natural ambient light, because he didn't notice me until I was right up on him. I gave chase, of course, and got him cornered by a pond, trying to talk to him in low calm tones to see if he'd relax a little. He dodged my tail grabs but sprayed me right in the face (splashing my goggles) before bolting off to the nearest storm drain, where I barely managed to get his tail as he desperately squeezed inside.
This left me in a stalemate like the last skunk that did this, and I didn't want to tug really hard since that might hurt him, and so I had to let him go, but not before ensuring he squirted my arm a couple more times.
The second skunk was more fun. I chased that one down to the other side of the same pond, where she was cornered. I got her by the tail of course and suspended her in mid-air, which is how I could tell she was a female since I saw her chest. I poked her rump gently to provoke a few good sprayings which really saturated my arms, my face, my neck, shirt, and pants. She had quite a bit of musk in her, I was really impressed with the quantity of Eau de Mouffette perfume I got her to squirt ;)
I let her go of course, thanking her for the thorough stinking, and I walked back to the car with a goofy grin on my face, reeking to high heaven. I did manage to get the first skunk chase entirely on video, but the second was botched by the close proximity to the skunk as well as the position of the camera (way too high up). It's a shame too because she really let me have it and I'm sure the camera would've caught it.
I did film a bit of a "damage assessment" though, showing off my sprayed-up arms, face, and the pants and shirt. I've uploaded them to YouTube and kept them unlisted, so I'll send them privately to anyone who asks nicely. :)
