I Am A Skunkseeker

I had at least a minor success last night at the lake. I got my chasing gear ready at sundown, headed down on my bicycle and arrived at about 9:00 p.m. CDT. I looked around for a good 30 minutes in the usual places, not finding any skunks, and actually said out loud that I wasn't going to bother anymore and was going to give up when I saw that beautiful white stripe a few feet in front of me. It looked like a sleek female skunk, she was poking her head out of a drainage pipe (as you might recall from my previous stories, the skunks use these as easy shelter and shortcuts all over the park). A car rode by and scared her back into the pipe, which annoyed me greatly, but I knew she hadn't seen me yet and would probably come right back out a few minutes later. There's a motion-detection street light a few feet away from that pipe, so even though I'd walked away I could still be notified when the skunkie came back out, and sure enough she did, and hobbled up and around the pipe while I waited patiently for my chance. Unfortunately, she only waddled a few feet away from the pipe before turning tail and heading back toward it, with me breaching the distance creeping forward I knew this had to be my chance, so I sprung forward. That tail went up right away and the skunk panicked, running down into the ditch as I followed and only giving me a quick panicked misting along my legs before scrambling into the pipe and out of sight. The smell exploded in the air and I tried to figure out where I was hit, but soon came to the conclusion that it was a clothing-only misting.

Since she was in the pipe, I knew I couldn't get to her without waiting very patiently for her to leave and having to check both sides for her exit. A raccoon wandered by shortly afterward and I didn't stop him from going into the pipe himself. I heard a brief scuffle (he likely fought the skunk and lost) and when I checked a little later, the pipe had emptied completely, no sign of the skunk or raccoon. I wandered the park again for about an hour and a half before finally coming across only one other skunk on a foot path marked "Pedestrians only", and unfortunately I'd startled it while coming forward, so by the time I got off my bike and gave chase the skunk had scrambled uphill and into the thick wooded brush where I couldn't get to it. That basically ended my night, and I headed home only partially victorious.

In retrospect, I should've done more with the single opportunity I had, I could've blocked the pipe with my body as I have before and when the skunk saw that wasn't an easy exit it probably would've tried another, it's hard to say. The fact there were still fishermen constantly driving around at that point hurt my chances a lot, the skunks at the park are used to motorists and will run from cars, as I kept seeing. The jeans are fun to sniff, at least, so I'll enjoy them until I have to put them away tonight.