1000 smoking vacuum cleaner belts

Last night at 4:00 am I wake up because I smell something weird. I mean, I wake up from a dead sleep because it's so strong. I wake up my wife and ask her, "You smell something?".

Finally, I think, that smells kinda like a vacuum cleaner belt when it's getting smoked. She agrees. SHOOT, something must be burning!

I wake everybody up and we start looking for smoke and whatever it is that smells. I run down into the basement and check the furnace and shut off the breakers that power it and head back upstairs. By now my eyes and throat are starting to burn a bit like I've gotten sprayed with pepper spray and I'm really wondering what's going on. I can't find smoke anywhere.

Finally, my wife and daughter come in from outside and tell me there was a skunk under the deck that sprayed one of our cats.

That skunk didn't hold back any juice, I can tell you that for sure. I've smelled a lot of skunks, but this one topped them all for pure malodorous power and surefire repellent potency.

The house still smells a little even tonight and my throat still burns a little too. I'm sure glad I've never been sprayed while bushwhacking around <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

That sucks Bill <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I had a skunk cruise by the deck the other night like it owned the place. You know, it sashyed across the deck in that skunk waddle that says,"I'm the baddest little soB in the woods" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> It looked just like a big black farm cat which was even scarier. Now I know what's been lickin' my outdoor grill in the campfire pit <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> It's going to be hard to sleep out under a tarp in the yard with it around. I can see myself waking up to it sniffing around under there while I'm asleep <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

At least it got a cat and nothing else, guess that cat is'nt coming in for awhile <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I kicked a skunk one July night.

I had my troop at Boy Scout summer camp. We made a big deal of not using flashlights unless absolutely necessary (this was in the days before long-lived LED lights; we were trying not to spend the whole treasury on batteries.) So, when I headed for the latrine on a half-moon night, no lights.

Felt this soft "thud" and almost tripped. I looked down, and saw white - the stripe of the skunk I just kicked. It looked up at me as if to say, "I'll really be glad when all you guys go home for the winter." Didn't get sprayed or anything - I guess 3 months of Scouts everywhere had pretty much habituated the local wildlife.

This other time, at ban...er, Scout camp, I was showing off, sleeping under the stars, and had a skunk start sniffing the foot of my bivy sack. A little wiggle of the feet, and it decided I was harmless - or witless, or whatever.

Gotta love skunks. From a distance. Or in cartoons.

Last year I had a litter of the little critters in a hole in the field. I took photos, I have to shoot them to Tim so he can post them. they would walk right up to me like kittens, then turn around and do their little handstands <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> that's when I 'd split like the wind <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> those little suckers know the 'dance' before they are 5 months old I tell ya <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

My dog decided to shake the daylights out of a skunk once. An upclose spraying is a gagging smell that is unforgetable. Nothing at all like the distant skunk road kill smell.

I've had a dog get it bad while out in the bush when I was young, it was a real treat getting
back with him. up close and nasty it's way beyond just a skunk sniff. It's penetratingly awful.
I remember trying to help my folks get the stink out. nothing worked more than "helping".
it just had to wear off - every time the dog got wet for months you smelled skunk.

supposedly they make great pets. after they're de-scented, of course.

I was sleeping in a bivy one clear night in my local foothills when a skunk walked right up to my face. There was only no-see-um mesh in between me and it's face. I was half alseep, but when I realized what was out there I simply froze. Luckily I didn't freak out. He had smelled my hot chocolate cup and was licking around the rim. I've learned not to put my used cup and spoon near my face when I'm in my bivy from now on.

Soon it waddled off after about 10 minutes of me staring it directly in the face (I was so close I could hear his tongue lapping the cup). Actually I wanted to get out and pet it. As soon as it got about 15 feet away, I jumped out of the sack (in my underwear) and threw rocks at it furiously to scare it off. Luckily the wind was blowing in the right direction and it was far enough away that it's spray wouldn't have reached me. Getting to sleep in a bivy is hard enough let alone after such an upclose encounter with something that could really ruin your day. It took me awhile to get back to sleep to say the least.

Two other quick stories I'd somewhat repressed:

My first encounter was when one wandered into the vestibule of the tent a buddy and I were sharing. Very much a "now that we've got it, what do we do?" moment. When whispered "shoo"s didn't work, I raised an arm to sit up and brushed against the nylon wall. The "whoosh" sound got his attention and he quickly wandered off - without leaving a "memory." We got lucky, I think.

The other is another Scout Camp story. We had just grown the troop to a third patrol: a bunch of Webelos we had crossed over a few weeks earlier. We warned them about cleaning up after supper and securing all the food and cook gear since we knew skunks and/or raccoons were likely to visit. Naturally, they listened attentively - and promptly decided that going to play Frisbee was more important. An hour or so later, we scoutmasters heard a big hubbub down in the new patrol's campsite; we quick-stepped down to see, though we knew what had happened. I arrived just as one boy raised a shovel over his head and said, "Let's klong that skunk with this." I grabbed the shovel handle and said, "Let's not." Again, the skunks were habituated; they ate their fill and left (I swear one looked back and smirked.) For the rest of the week, that patrol had a shipshape patrol site.

Good times, good times.

My scout story's almost identical, but a bit different. We took canoes to an island in a lake, I knew
the site, and had suggested it. On the largest place our troop set up, and I proceeded to tell huge tall tales about bears on the island (there are no bears anywhere around it). Needless to say, everyone in the troop hung their food - with one exception..

Our two college age troop leaders decided to camp in a somewhat separated spot about 100 meters away down the shore. They didn't clean up so good after supper, and left their food bag out.
Four skunks came sauntering into their camp with them in their tent, leaving them cowering in their tent while they proceeded to lick their dishes clean, eat their dishrag, their food bag, and everything in the food bag. No amount of hooting and hollering would chase them off. One of them had to canoe back for replacement supplies for the two of them.

No, we didn't let them live it down very easy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bill
Having lived in a high skunk area and since I fed cats and opposums I also had skunks. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> Since my backyard was a mess I had an old plastic garbage can laying on its side half buried in the dirt and I saw a skunk go in there one day and realised that they actually lived in my backyard. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Anyway I chased the skunk off with the garden hose. They don't like rain and they don't relate garden hoses as offensive weaponry, so they don't look for someone to spray back. Then I cleaned up all the "camping spaces" in my yard. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
Jim
I did have a vole or something burrow up under my tent. I heard him coming up and it scared me at first, then I saw something wiggling a spot on the floor of my tent and I smacked my hand down on it - not hard enough to injure it, but just to say "Dude you are coming up at the wrong spot".
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

While carpooling to Central Washington University one spring (a long time ago), the vehicle in which I was riding (and studying for a test) came to an abrupt stop. There, crossing the highway, was Mommy Skunk, followed by five baby skunks, all in a line. Cutest thing I've ever seen, but I was very glad (for multiple reasons, especially olfactory) that we didn't hit them!

Those are all pretty good skunk stories, I especially like that one about the skunk sharing the tea!

I just found out why that skunky smell woke me up:

I must have these chemosensory cells

Bill