Stinky Midnight Caller

So this particular stinky midnight visitor has left his calling card on my front porch several nights this week. He’s been rooting around in the compost pile. We can tell by the paw prints left in the melting snow and mud. Some mornings, I open the door to a thunderclap of powerful stink that makes my nose burn and my eyes water. He’s been here, all right. I wish he’d just ring the doorbell instead of leaving his personal stinky calling card.

Last night, Shadow woke me up at 3 a.m. with a hair-raising growl. She is the sweetest German Shepherd dog you can image, the best kind of companion, but when she senses anything threatening us…particularly me…she is ferocious. It was that kind of growl. She was sleeping in the master bathroom last night. The windows in the bathroom overlook the flower garden next to the driveway and the compost pile. I heard the growl, low and deep, warning….I heard her disks jingle as she stood with her gigantic paws on the windowsill, still growling…then she gave a short “woof” of command and trotted over to my office on the other side of the house. I heard her growl more, then settle down. In the morning, the telltale prints were in the mud in the flower garden…I think our visitor was back.

I don’t know why Mr. Skunk keeps coming onto our front porch. There’s no food for him. The only things on the porch in the winter time are Shadow’s tennis balls, her brush and comb, and a towel I keep there to wipe her muddy paws off before she comes back into the house. Could he smell her scent and be as territorial as she is?

I think skunks are beautiful, but I don’t want one near the house. When John and I were on vacation in Kentucky years ago, we ate dinner at a restaurant in a state park that had a very unusual attraction. The restaurant was built onto a hillside, and the dining room was up around the second story of the building. It had huge floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the forest, mountains, and the clearing right behind the restaurant. Every evening at 5 p.m, the restaurant workers put out spoiled food on trays in the clearing. And out came the skunks. It was like a little floor show. Safely behind the glass windows, we ate our dinner and marveled at the beauty of these creatures. Some were mostly white with black, others glossy jet black with the traditional white stripe. Some had gigantic hair sticking out everywhere while others seemed more streamlined. The food was good but the entertainment was better!

We have seen our skunk visitor near the border of our property, near the Seven Oaks farm sign and the pile of rocks. There’s a tangle of dead tree trunks, limbs and branches that the man who cleared the lot for the house just pushed into a big pile. It’s a wonderful habitat for wildlife. During the snowstorm, a young fawn hid in there, and we’ve seen the flock of bobwhite quail hop out of the brush too. I wonder if Mr. Skunk lives there, or perhaps in the dead tree that fell and now has a nice hollow in the trunk?

I don’t plan to call on him anytime soon, however. I just want to make sure Shadow doesn’t take it upon herself to chase him away!