God, why did you create this animal?

Man, I haven't posted in awhile and I HATE that I am even getting ready to share with your our latest news.

Do you remember this little problem we had back in June. Well, Pepe Lupe along with his whole entire family is back!

A month or so ago our dog, Anni, got sprayed at 6 in the morning when Dave was heading to work. She was out front when it happened, Dave had the truck doors open taking carseats out. It freaked her out and she jumped directly in the truck and wouldn't come out. I woke up to the STRONGEST and most AWFUL smell in the world, later to find out that it happened directly outside our bedroom window. I couldn't sleep anymore because I couldn't breath, I tried breathing into my covers and going back to sleep but couldn't.

We never saw that skunk again. But we had to deal with that smell for a few days and that smell is STILL in our truck.

This past week, Dave spotted the skunk in the early morning ours AGAIN, so we knew it was back.

He set a trap (this time NOT a live trap as in our previous post - getting rid of live skunks is not the most easy or fun thing to figure out). No luck for several nights with the trap. So we were not FOR SURE they were back under our porch/house or not.

Yesterday he decided to move the trap directly in front of the hole, with boards funneling the skunks out of the hole to make sure they go right into the trap.

It worked. BUT OH WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE THAT WAS!

Last night at 2am, as I headed to bed, I noticed the porch light was still on, and decided to turn it off, thinking the skunks would come out of the hole in the dark easier. There was no activity at the trap.

Out of curiosity, I went to Taylor's room quietly to see if I could have a good view of the trap from her window. But I couldn't see out the window with the porch light off. So I went back to the door to turn the light on. And WHOAH!!!!

There was definitely activity at the trap now. 4 or 5 skunks just hovering the hole. We didn't have a good view of the trap, so we couldn't tell if anything was in it. But we figured there was as the others were hovering it so much. I woke Dave up and we just stared out the window in helplessness as our house is being taken over by these AWFUL rodents. There was nothing we could do but just stare out at them and wonder what in the world we were going to do.

We also figured something was in the trap because one of them OBVIOUSLY sprayed. It got stronger and stronger and I was worried we would NEVER be able to sleep. I stuck my head under the covers and just PRAYED I would somehow fall asleep with that horrific smell flooding into my nose and mouth. I'd try to breath in and out of my mouth instead of my nose and I swear I could taste it.

Somehow I fell asleep for a few hours, because 6am came. Dave woke me up to inform me that there were TWO skunks in the trap and we needed to leave the house. The smell was seriously unbearable. One of them had been alive all night and continued to spray all night long. Seriously, right up against our house. I had to tie a shirt around my mouth just to breath as I packed up some stuff for me and the kids and we headed to Grandma's. Dave got rid of the skunks and the trap, opened up all the windows, turned on the attic fan and we PRAYED the smell would subside soon.

The smell was on us.
In our hair.
On our skin.
In our clothes.
(okay, MAYBE not in our skin) but definitely in our clothes
Through our dryer vent.
The clothes in the dryer may have to be washed 15 times or just throw away!

We tried to go back at lunch time and couldn't stand it. So we stayed at Grandma's all day. The CLEAN clothes I grabbed to wear for small group smelled of skunk.
SERIOUSLY!?!??!

We came back home about 9:30 tonight and it is tolerable.

I'm pretty sure we will be washing every last piece of clothing in this house...just for my mental state. The smell of skunk has always been awful. But until you smell it like this...you have NO idea. It makes me want to throw up.

Obviously there are more skunks. But Dave is pretty sure they were OUT from under the house this afternoon. He dug deep and put up wire fencing. So they can't get back under.

People have asked us about animal control. We talked with them back in June. The problem is that they come with live traps (which yes, worked for us in June for BABIES), and sometimes it is several days before they can come, depending on where you are on the list. From what we have heard about skunks, they are smart. They will not usually walk into live traps. And we found this out after having one set for the adults for MANY nights. So other than paying lots of money for pest control (maybe it would have been worth it in the end), Dave's just taken it on himself. Animal control will NOT come take them away unless it is their trap. So once we catch them, dead or alive, on our own, we have to take care of them. They did warn us that they will come back. The same family, even seasons later, will come back. Guess they were right.

So hopefully this story can now come to an end.....except for the lingering smell.

Unless they ARE still under there and we have now caged them in. Wonderful.

(Dave took some kind of pictures this morning, but I haven't looked at them yet. I'm not sure if they are appropriate for the blog - you don't want to see them anyway, do you?)