The skunk is dead....

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

DH shot a mocking bird with a pellet gun once. (We were living in the city limits in San Diego).

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I'm sure I don't need to tell you that if he had killed the thing, it would have been a violation of the MBTA. :p It's a good thing the wildlifey lawyer I know works for the state and not the feds ;)

I once had a fellow tell me he was going to turn me in for violating the MBTA because I collected an owl feather in the woods.

In a sick kind of way, I miss mockingbirds. They are completely absent from this part of Oootah.

(Note to all: this is meant to be humorous. really.)

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Originally Posted by onimity

Sarah,

I used to live in Orange County and had a similar bird in the neighborhood. It was uncanny how well it could imitate a car alarm:

whoOOOp-whoOOOp-whoOOOp-whoOOOp eRRRnh-eRRRnh-eRRRnh-eRRRnh bEEdup-bEEdup-bEEdup-bEEdup whoOOOp-whoOOOp-whoOOOp-whoOOOp

It was the exact same pattern as our neighbor's alarm (which went off frequently) and the bird had it down pat.

I suppose the little guy was trying to attract the ladies SoCal-style.

Anne

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O.M.G.!!! That is EXACTLY what this bird would do. That's amazing.

And Yellow, you can call the Feds on me any time.... :p

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

Meg, there are times when animals must be eradicated from an environment. FlyBye’s post gave very little information about the skunk’s behavior but to her it could obviously have been sick. A skunk (or dog or cat) with rabies cannot be tolerated. None of us could see what FlyBye saw. I personally wonder that she’s had 11 serious encounters with skunks, making me think that something in her yard is an attraction for them, but I’m certainly not going to judge her for this one incidence. There is absolutely no evidence that what she did was wrong because there is not enough information.

There is respect in putting an animal out of its misery.

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Just so you don't think I live amidst junk cars and in a stink-hole, the 10 encounters happened when I was in high school and we moved into a home that had been abandoned for about 8 years. The skunks, who are creatures of habit, used the area as their home - garage, outbuildings, bushes, etc. The one we shot the other day was the first I have ever had in my yard as an adult.

Snapdragen - Thanks for deleting the offending posts. They belong on another cycling site which I shall not mention.:D

Oh my gosh, that must have been a job to clean up.

Yes, it was. The previous owners were not very clean. We stripped carpet and repainted the entire house.
I thought my parents had lost their mind when we moved out there. It was a 3000 sq ft home on almost 1 acre and they picked it up for $45,000.
They sold it last spring for $210,000.
Pretty fair profit.
They knew what they were doing the whole time.:D

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Originally Posted by yellow

In a sick kind of way, I miss mockingbirds. They are completely absent from this part of Oootah.

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Yellow, if I could catch the one in the tree outside BF's bedroom window, I'd ship it to you. In a very humane way that was in full compliance with all federal laws, of course. :cool:

J. has threatened to shoot said bird, but it's usually mumbled around 3 AM..."ah'm going to...that bird...shotgun...snoooore" It is rather aggravating. The bird, that is.

I once dated a guy who was an officer in the Chilean navy, and went out to shoot rats in the alley out back of his Chicago apt. He was incensed when I told him it was surely illegal to discharge his firearm in the alley...he felt he was doing a public service! :p

PS: Thanks, Snap, for keeping it civil around here. L.

I have a group of crows that sing me awake every morning :eek: So pretty....NOT!

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

Guess you haven't spent much time in California, have you? American River Parkway, Mt. Diablo, ALL of Southern California, etc. These are animals that have become very used to humans and live very successfully in the urban setting.

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No ma'am, I haven't been to California. I hope to go there some time in the near future, I have a friend I want to meet really badly in Southern Calif. :D

OMG! She called me ma'am! You must be from Texas?!

Being half-Texan on my father's side I can say that. Ma'am isn't heard very often in these parts.:D

LMAO, I am cracking up here!!! Sorry, it just came natural for me, Kinda like saying howdy, instead of hello.

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Did you know that the smell can linger in your car for up to 6 months after a near proximity spraying?

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Gag. Sadly, yes. Several years ago while driving home from class I encountered Skunkzilla waddling in the road. I didn't have time to stop but I was able to position the car so that I drove over it (not squashing type drive over), looked in the rearview mirror and saw it continuing to waddle on its merry way. Pat myself on the back for dodging that bullett...until the next morning when I was leaving for work. Turned the key and as the car got warmer eau de skunk got stronger. And there's nothing you can do about it. Needless to say, nobody wanted to carpool with me.:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by DDH

LMAO, I am cracking up here!!! Sorry, it just came natural for me, Kinda like saying howdy, instead of hello.

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....."Howdy??..... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :p :D

Hey what's wrong with all you guys anyway? Dh and I LOVE to hear ALL the birds at dawn- at the first hint of daylight. We sleep with the windows open so we can hear the mockingbirds, crows, bluejays, sparrows, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, hawks, blackbirds, doves, woodpeckers....it's a beautiful symphony that just sort of lulls us along and doesn't keep us from going back to sleep- it just flavors our half dreams in a nice way. When I hear crows I envision Van Gogh's painting of black crows over the golden corn. The bluejays make me think of the Adirondac pine woods. The doves remind me of mournful windy cliffs in Maine. The sparrows remind me of my city early childhood days. Each birdsong evokes rich memories and soothes me when I am half asleep. We are sad that for the past two years all the mockingbirds that used to be in our neighborhood have suddenly disappeared. The abundant honeybees are completely gone from my gardens and flowering trees as well this year. Scary. :(

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Originally Posted by Flybye

Wow, did I open up a can of worms or what?

I am a country girl and have grown up around skunks my entire life. They are pests and they are wretched. They have no natural predators and therefore are overpoplulated. They do carry rabies and they do spray easily. Maybe the ones on Myth Busters were more accustomed to living with people and maybe the ones in the camprgound were accustomed to this as well. The ones that I have been around aren't.

They spray up to 10 feet. It is wretched. It can send you to the hospital it is so awful. I know two people who have gone to the hospital for that. I have had one dog that was sprayed 10 times. My neighbor that shot the skunk? Sprayed twice. Did you know that the spray of a skunk can make unopened food - crackers - taste like the spray of a skunk? It isn't a nose thing, either. The crackers that I am referring to were 3 months old and unopened. Barf. Did you know that the smell can linger in your car for up to 6 months after a near proximity spraying? We had a car growing up and MAN was it awful to ride in. Did you know that tomato juice really doesn't work? I do because I have bathed the dog that got sprayed with it numerous times.

This is not the first time that I have been around a skunk that we have shot, in fact, it is about the 11th time. Now hold your horses - I also fish and eat them. I like hunting. I also smack mosquitoes when they land on me. Horse flies too. I also set out DCon to kill the mice at my house. I eat chicken.

My point? Everything does have a place on the planet. Including US!!! I am not an awful person because I do these things. You aren't perfect because you don't. There isn't ONE right way to do things. You are entitled to your opinion on this matter as am I.

It didn't bring great joy for us to pop off a skunk , (and also I am not going to throw a funeral for it) - but it is a relief to know that it won't be lurking out there when I let my dog out - or when the kids do on accident. It is also a relief to know that I won't be getting sprayed next time I mow the lawn. They are creatures of habit and do tend to return to the same place to "nest".

Thanks for all of your opinions. I don't feel at all bad for what I did. Life in the Western rural setting is perhaps a bit different than the rest of the world. Just remember, there are many opinions and no ONE right way.

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Very good and enlightening post--thank you, Flybye.

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

DH shot a mocking bird with a pellet gun once. (We were living in the city limits in San Diego).

The d@mned thing kept going off at 3 in the morning. It was like one of those car alarms that sounds all the different alarm tones over and over. We tried throwing rocks at it, shooing it away. It was in a neighbor's tree. Weeks and weeks this went on. Finally he went to the sporting good store and bought a pellet gun. Then one night, in the pitch dark, he shot it. I don't know how he did it, but the thing never came back, so he must have hit it.

We felt badly about it, but we slept better than we had in weeks.

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I could be wrong (Lord knows it's happened before) but is it legal to kill a mocking bird?

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Originally Posted by Lisa S.H.

Hey what's wrong with all you guys anyway? Dh and I LOVE to hear ALL the birds at dawn- at the first hint of daylight. We sleep with the windows open so we can hear the mockingbirds, crows, bluejays, sparrows, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, hawks, blackbirds, doves, woodpeckers....it's a beautiful symphony that just sort of lulls us along and doesn't keep us from going back to sleep- (

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hmmmm birds are fine, but when we sleep with the windows open the birds wake up (and excite) the cats, and since we get veeeerrry early dawns during the summer way up north here in Seattle, having riled up kitties romping over your bed (or scratching at the door if we kick them out) doesn't do much for your sleep....

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Originally Posted by Zeek

I could be wrong (Lord knows it's happened before) but is it legal to kill a mocking bird?

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Well, surely it's a sin (referrence To Kill A Mockingbird). :rolleyes:

Frankly, I don't know how likely it is that one would kill a bird by shooting at it in the dark. I do love birdsong in the morning, just not the same incessant three notes at 3 AM!

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Originally Posted by Lise

I do love birdsong in the morning, just not the same incessant three notes at 3 AM!

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I can understand how that would disturb many people's sleep. I guess I am lucky in that even angrily cawing crows sound like soothing music to me. :)

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Well, our neighbor has trapped a few beavers and we called in hopes that he had a skunk trap handy. He didn't. He came over with a huge smile on his face and a high powered pellet gun. He received the gun at Christmas and hadn't had a chance to use it yet."

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.....Well there's a guy who apparently did seem to get some joy out of it! :rolleyes:

We had a ground hog/woodchuck in our garden last summer who decided to burrow a home under our shed and eat our vegetable garden up every day. I borrowed a Have-a-heart trap and he fell for the apples and peanut butter and we trapped him in about an hour. :eek: We drove him far away to some abandoned fields and let him go there. I can't imagine that trapping a skunk would be an option though. I'd have just let him wander off eventually- he probably wouldn't stay right where big hound dogs are living for very long.

There used to be a skunk living somewhere right on Main Street in our village. Every night he would go rummaging for dropped goodies in back of Ralph's Pretty Good Cafe. I ran right into him with my little pug dog one evening- he was huge and gorgeous. Me and little Kinky just politely backed off and let him be! The restaurant crew knew enough to always check carefully before going back there at night, they all knew about the skunk. Everyone managed to coexist ok. :p

We get crows at 5 am here. That's okay. It's almost light. This mocking bird was at 2 - 3 a.m. Dark. Psycho bird.

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Originally Posted by Atticus Finch

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.

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Originally Posted by Meg McKilty

You're a weak admin.

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Not likely.

I learned in third grade no matter how much you disagree with someone you don't call them stupid. Period. Don't turn this on her.

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Originally Posted by Lise

Frankly, I don't know how likely it is that one would kill a bird by shooting at it in the dark. I do love birdsong in the morning, just not the same incessant three notes at 3 AM!

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He's a good shot. Or maybe it was dumb luck. Either way, we'd be happy to give J some pointers....

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

He's a good shot. Or maybe it was dumb luck. Either way, we'd be happy to give J some pointers....

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I'm sure he'd appreciate them!

I agree, keep it civil, folks.

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

Not likely.

I learned in third grade no matter how much you disagree with someone you don't call them stupid. Period.

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LOL


V.

Ahh girls that is the wonderful thing about the "ignore" option...
I think I just found a new reason to "ignore" someone!



Sadiekate + ma'am = :D

I got a chuckle out of that one DDH! :D :D

Only 'cause I've had the distinct pleasure of sharing a beer with her recently.

BTW- going to be back in Moab in two weeks....Riding my new baby...Enjoying a post ride beer... anyone game?? :D

Isn't Moab really hot in the middle of July?

We're planning a 3 - 4 week road trip and considered adding in Moab (gotta get back from Denver somehow!) but figured it would be too hot to really enjoy.

V.

Ohh V when you live in Phoenix, "hot" is all relative! I looked at last years temps on wunderground, and it never got over 105. Anything less than 110 is heaven for us. But the thing with moab for us it that it cools down at night. Here it doesn't get under 85 overnight. So even if you get up at o dark thirty your still running/riding in heat. In Moab we get up early and get our rides in while it's still cool. As long as we are off the trails by mid day we are golden. It was 103+ the last time we were there and it didn't phase us.
In fact now that I think of it, Yellow called me around 12:30 pm and we were still on the trails. When I called her later and told her we were playing on the slickrock when she called she was like 'Whhhaaattt?? You were still out there in that heat?! Oh yeah, your from Phoenix..."
But then the best part is enjoying that cool beverage after a long mornings ride....:D I'm getting giddy just thinking about it!

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Originally Posted by Running Mommy

Sadiekate + ma'am = :D

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I don't get no RESPECT! :D

V, I've ridden in Moab in July. I don't recommend it unless you can force yourself to be on the trails at sunrise. It does not cool off at night by the standards held by us'ns who live near the Sacramento Delta. It was friggin' hot at night in the middle of June! I've also been in Moab in July when it was 114.

Remember that there is little to no shade on those trails.

Kaleidoscope ice cream is excellent however.

Yeah it would be too hot for most folks. But I also hit the pavement when it's 109+ out and the heat is radiating off of it. The best is when my tires smell like burning rubber. Heat... Yeah, bring it on baby! OY!:cool:
But then again if your not used to it, it can kill ya. I am careful when I go out there, and like I said we will be off the trails by noon.
Hydrate like a big dog, keep the noggin cool if ya can. (frozen bandana's for the neck are fab) and don't venture out on an epic ride... Short stuff is in order this time of year.
And yeah, we start early, very frickin early. But here in Phoenix I'm used to being up at 5:00 am for my runs, so it's no big deal.


Mmmmmm Ice cream... mmmmmm....

We'll stick with our plan of heading on to Panguitch. :D We're early birds... but still.

Have a grand time while you're there.

V.

Pepe says RIP, Stinky...

I've coexisted with many wild animals lounging about my yard over the years but I would hesitate to think that a skunk is dangerous, just stinky. I think there may have been reason to assume that skunky was a wee bit ill but then again they do have very docile natures. I guess I would have given him a day or two to wander off on his own and if he didn't, I would then have set out a humane trap and carted him off. Of course, we had so many of them in Amish Country PA that we actually had guys we could call who would trap them and remove them. Put some raw chicken in and they were all taken care of. I actually owned a Have A Heart trap that I used on a few skunks and more than a few groundhogs. I never was sprayed even once. We had a friend with a pet skunk when we were teens and he was very cuddly. (the skunk too.)

and just to add in my .02... Snap is my hero. :cool: Don't mess with Snap, please. **givin' the hairy eyeball**

I was reading this thread first thing this morning, listening to the crows, robins, and killdeer out my window and thought I had to share my skunk story from this weekend at work. An 11 year old boy, was dared by his sister to go and catch the skunk that was at the country dump (meaning private owned, back yard kinda thing)..little boy took sister up on the dare. Not only did he grab the skunk, he got sprayed and nipped on the finger. Needless to say, he started his rabies series that night and I had to send him to the waiting room after triage for a room to open as we were full. The ER stunk, the lobby stunk, and that poor boy stunk, I even attempted spraying him with air neutralizer, didn't help. Skunks in our area are 2nd after raccoons for carrying rabies. The skunk made it away without harm. I think the skunk was trying to protect himself in this case. I myself dont mind the skunks. They eat the grubs out of our lawn, and I know people kill them purposly (like my brother) because they spray his dog (who chases them). They aren't any different than any other little critter out trying to get a meal. I am a little hesitant about seeing one in the day, but I get up during my prime sleeping time too to get a midnight snack, so i might be out of my element also at midnight. If the creature acted funny, I think I would've called the DEC to come and get it and dispose of it properly, which they sometimes send a sheriff or state police to help them if need be. Now that's what I would do, my DH is another story. 22 guage comes to mind. Still, a dead animal poses just as much threat if it has rabies, and another animal comes along and eats it. Better to dispose of properly I guess. All I wanted to do was share my weekend skunk story, and hope my opinions don't offend anyone, as they weren't meant to.

Shellyj
i enjoyed your story. It shows once again, the skunk minding his own business... but with a happy ending, he didn't get blown away for protecting himself. I spoke to a friend of mine who is an ER doctor about this very thing. Had he ever had a skunk sprayinig victim come in during his 25 years of practice? no, he hadn't. but if he had, he'd refer the people to the kind of remedies that are on line, like bleach solutions and tomato juice...

passed a skunk a couple years ago while on my bike. the skunk minded its own business and I.... pedaled fASTER!

May I say once again that FlyBye didn't give us enough info to determine whether the skunk was fine or not? Let's let it go.

I'm now using that wonderful "hide thread" option because it is obviously topic that is going to be beaten to death without changing anyone's mind.

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

I'm now using that wonderful "hide thread" option because it is obviously topic that is going to be beaten to death without changing anyone's mind.

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That's why I keep trying to change the subject. :p

It's so easy to judge others when you weren't there.

I think she should have skinned the skunk, tanned the hide and worn it as hat. I wonder what skunk meat tastes like. ;)

V.

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

I'm now using that wonderful "hide thread" option because it is obviously topic that is going to be beaten to death without changing anyone's mind.

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You're right. There are clearly two differing opinions and neither side is going to change it's mind no matter how much it gets argued back and forth.
I personally think the entire thread should be deleted. It's been unproductive and unpleasant for everyone no matter what side they were on.

Is the skunk thread DEAD yet??:D

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Originally Posted by Running Mommy

We should change the title to: Is the skunk thread DEAD yet??:D

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Or....
This thread STINKS.

No use beating a dead skunk....

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

No use beating a dead skunk....

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One more like that and I'm wiping the entire thread.....:)

The Skunk is dead. Long live the Skunk!

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Originally Posted by Lisa S.H.

The Skunk is dead. Long live the Skunk!

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stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!stoppit!