Here’s a guest post by Iggy, my husband.
I arrived home late one night last week from helping a friend with something. It was dark and I noticed as I entered the back of the yard the pungent smell of a skunk. We refer to skunks as “Skwinkee.” I carefully walked to the back door in the dark, very slowly, as didn’t want to surprise Skwinkee if they were around. As got closer, I could hear what sounded like one of our squirrels chewing on a peanut. But I know squirrels aren’t out that late. Still the motion detector light at back door had not triggered. I walked VERY slowly. Finally the light came on and I saw what at first I thought was one of the young racoons standing in the driveway. Then I realized it was a cute skunk which badly needed a haircut as its long hair made it look bigger. It did not move and kept chewing. I ascended the back stairs and the skunk stayed put. As I opened the door, the skunk ran off towards the street. Relieved I had made it, I grabbed a peanut from inside and threw it towards the driveway & closed the door.
Then I realized that was probably the last peanut the skunk would get from us as we can no longer put peanuts out at night for the squirrels & birds to race for the next morning. Although skunks are cute it is too risky to attract them.