P.U. at the P.O.

The West Nottingham Post Office has skunks underneath. It’s a small post office, attached to a general store, and it stinks. Mike, the postmaster’s been airing out since the last skunk event about a week ago. He was making good progress, too. Each day, the skunk smell faded a bit. Evidently, the three skunks were relocated in Weare. Why Weare? I forgot to ask.

Just the other day, though, the smell was back. Either those three skunks had found their way home, which seems unlikely, or some new ones moved in. But Mike was pretty sure the situation was under control. He said, “Yesterday, Bill went out and got some coyote urine.”

Which made me wonder how the coyotes felt about that.

Skunks don’t like coyotes, so the hope is one sniff of the urine and they’ll vamoose.

Coincidentally, one of our cats is missing. John thinks a coyote got poor Pip, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised. We’ve seen coyotes in the woods behind the house, though not recently. Coyotes like cats as much as they like skunks. Although, Pip could be up a tree. Several years back she spent three weeks in a tree. Didn’t seem to bother her much, though she did lose weight. 

Comments

[Squirrel Lover (Not)]

I once had a squirrel that was making a mess of things above our garage, so I trapped it in one of those Have-A-Hearts and released it in a wooded park about a half mile away. About two days later that same squirrel showed back up at our doorstep and proceeded to keep making a mess above the garage.

So I trapped that varmint again and took him to a park about three miles away. I'll be danged if that critter didn't find his way back to our garage a few days later. I think he made his way down the town's "greenbelt" walking path that leads from the park to near our house. My wife thinks I'm nuts that I thought it was the same squirrel, but I could tell by his beady little eyes.

So once again I caught that scoundrel, but this time I took him across the bridge into the big city of Portland. This time he was some five miles away -- and separated by Portland Harbor, no less. When I released him in a park up on the Eastern Prom, some codger nearly took his cane up side my head, complaining about how they already have enough squirrel problems of their own without me coming along bringing a South Portland squirrel among their own. To this day I keep waiting for that beady-eyed, mess-making, dirty tree rat to make its way back to our garage -- but I haven't seen him yet.

[Becky Rule]

Squirrel Lover (Not):
He'll be back. With friends. Pretty sure. I'm glad to learn the term "tree rat." It makes me smile.
Becky Rule