Our Haxtun Life Blog: An Unwelcome Visitor

Our Haxtun Life

An Unwelcome Visitor

Sometimes I think that I'll run out of interesting stories to put on this blog. That's how I felt a few days ago, but then look what happened.

Yep, that's a skunk. A skunk in the chicken house no less.

I went out to feed the cats when I noticed him. I let fly a string of cuss words because a skunk out during the day is a bad sign since they are nocturnal creatures. It could indicate that they are ill, such as with rabies. But the skunk seemed to be calmly snacking on chicken feed, so I didn't freak out.

I calmly went back to the house for the phone to call my father-in-law - surely he'd know what to do. My call went to the message machine and that's when I remembered that Big Roy and Kathy were on their way to Denver. I called Kathy's cell phone and told her about the situation.

"Well darn," she says, "No one's there to help you! Well, just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't cause trouble."

So that's what I did, after I got my camera of course. How could I miss a chance to take a picture of a skunk? As you can see, I hid behind a row of lilac bushes while I watched. I'm sure the skunk knew I was there because it's hard to be quiet with a cranky toddler on your hip. But it completely ignored me!

Watching a skunk scavenging for chicken feed is rather boring, but after 20 minutes it finally came out. I wanted to see where it would go, so I ran around the lilacs. By the time I got to the other side the skunk was gone - darn! My new fear is that it lives right behind our house.

So that was my exciting day. In related news, I started washing all those skunky towels only to discover that our washing machine's spin cycle isn't working! What luck!