Nocturnal Visitors

 It's difficult to tell but there are four rather beady eyes peering at the camera. It wasn't so bad when it was just one, the full grown skunk with a broad splash of white on her (as I've since discovered) back. Now she's bringing the family. 

 Yes, the skunk family has moved to Thistle Cove Farm. The dogs and I are awake sometime between 5 and 5:30 each morning (unless I've had to take meds to stem pain from whatever farm chores I've been doing) and I've known about the mama skunk for a while. So have Sadie and Sam -wry grin-. They both have been sprayed but at enough of a distance, they didn't stink too badly. Not as badly as they could have smelled had they been sprayed by a few feet.

 Skunks are able to spray about ten feet or three meters; rather impressive, I think. This mother and her baby are now wandering around the yard while another skunk, perhaps the male...???... is a few feet away. The other one is almost all black and impossible for me to capture with the camera unless I want to get very close which...I do not. As it is, I'm talking quite low and calming as I take these pictures; no need to upset anyone, me included!

 Sadie and Sam know to keep away from the white striped skunk but the almost all black skunk presented something new to investigate. Which, Sadie did although she was warned, repeatedly, not to investigate. She slobbered for several hours as she rolled around on the ground, trying to rid herself of the stench. I believe she caught most of the spray in her mouth; so glad it wasn't her eyes. Sam and Sophie watched at a respectful distance, both the initial skunk investigation and subsequent slobbering.

I'd love to capture them in a Havaheart trap and release them at a neighbors house (not saying which one as Daddy John likes to read this blog and I'd like the release to be a surprise...if it happens). My girlfriend said if the trap doesn't work a 12-guage shotgun works just dandy but, sap that I am, I don't want to kill them, just relocate them. 

What suggestions do you have? 

Blessings ~ I don't mind the smell of skunk spray, it reminds me of petroleum ~ I wasn't sprayed ~ cuteness ~