Animal tales
I need to write about something funny.
A week or so ago, the children noticed that Kenzie was particularly obsessed with an old drain pipe that was lying underneath our back porch. He would bark and bark at one end of it and didn't want to leave it. Kenzie also feels that every squirrel in the world in personally insulting him, and as a result h needs to be ever vigilant and bark at any squirrel that happens to set foot in our yard. (My personal theory is that is it solely because of the large barking dog that squirrels enter our yard. It is a form of squirrel entertainment to hang on the side of a tree, just out of reach of the frenzied barking dog. If squirrels could stick their tongues out and chant, "Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya," I would think this is what their doing.)
When you put those two things together, it seemed like a simple logic problem to figure out that Kenzie had trapped a squirrel in the drain pipe. So, J. and TM go out to the back yard to see if they can release the trapped squirrel.
J. and TM spend a lot of time looking in the drain pipe and poking the drain pipe with a stick trying to move the squirrel forward. During one of these forays, TM looks in the drain pipe one more time. He sees something unusual. This squirrel seems to be oddly colored. This squirrel seems to be more of a black... and... white... color... "This isn't a squirrel. It's a skunk!"
The brain does funny things when confronted with a not-so-happy skunk trapped in a drain pipe underneath a porch. But then, there is really no good response to such a situation. You don't want to leave the angry skunk under your porch, yet you don't really want the angry skunk to come out of the drain pipe and start walking around, either. I think J. chose the only really rational option, picking up the drain pipe and carrying it out to the alley.
The not entirely rational thing was when TM suggested that J. swing the pipe around to see if the skunk could get dislodged. Which he did. And for the curious among you, yes, a skunk will fly out the end of the drain pipe. And yes, the skunk will not be happy. You can figure out the rest.
It took a while for the stench to dissipate.
The moral of the story is to not mess with skunks. A few days later, though, we learned that Kenzie had yet to learn this moral. He was outside and came up to the back door, where he was pawing at his face and whimpering. We opened the door and realized exactly why he was behaving this way... yes it was another skunk. Upstairs he went where J. and TM (I think... or P.... or both) helped to clean him up. For several days, though, he smelled like skunky shampoo.
And those are my skunk stories.
A week or so ago, the children noticed that Kenzie was particularly obsessed with an old drain pipe that was lying underneath our back porch. He would bark and bark at one end of it and didn't want to leave it. Kenzie also feels that every squirrel in the world in personally insulting him, and as a result h needs to be ever vigilant and bark at any squirrel that happens to set foot in our yard. (My personal theory is that is it solely because of the large barking dog that squirrels enter our yard. It is a form of squirrel entertainment to hang on the side of a tree, just out of reach of the frenzied barking dog. If squirrels could stick their tongues out and chant, "Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya," I would think this is what their doing.)
When you put those two things together, it seemed like a simple logic problem to figure out that Kenzie had trapped a squirrel in the drain pipe. So, J. and TM go out to the back yard to see if they can release the trapped squirrel.
J. and TM spend a lot of time looking in the drain pipe and poking the drain pipe with a stick trying to move the squirrel forward. During one of these forays, TM looks in the drain pipe one more time. He sees something unusual. This squirrel seems to be oddly colored. This squirrel seems to be more of a black... and... white... color... "This isn't a squirrel. It's a skunk!"
The brain does funny things when confronted with a not-so-happy skunk trapped in a drain pipe underneath a porch. But then, there is really no good response to such a situation. You don't want to leave the angry skunk under your porch, yet you don't really want the angry skunk to come out of the drain pipe and start walking around, either. I think J. chose the only really rational option, picking up the drain pipe and carrying it out to the alley.
The not entirely rational thing was when TM suggested that J. swing the pipe around to see if the skunk could get dislodged. Which he did. And for the curious among you, yes, a skunk will fly out the end of the drain pipe. And yes, the skunk will not be happy. You can figure out the rest.
It took a while for the stench to dissipate.
The moral of the story is to not mess with skunks. A few days later, though, we learned that Kenzie had yet to learn this moral. He was outside and came up to the back door, where he was pawing at his face and whimpering. We opened the door and realized exactly why he was behaving this way... yes it was another skunk. Upstairs he went where J. and TM (I think... or P.... or both) helped to clean him up. For several days, though, he smelled like skunky shampoo.
And those are my skunk stories.
Comments
Thank you for writing it so descriptively that I could see the whole event in my mind.