I would like to teach you all about striped skunks

[SallyMander]

courtesy of Wikipedia... :rofl:

[PaddyBlueEyes]

1. Cant we just shoot the little bastards

and call it a night? :rofl:

[SallyMander]

4. Not if they shoot you first!

:rofl:

[PaddyBlueEyes]

27. you gonna give them ak 47's

??

[Jamastiene]

2. zOMG,

:rofl:

[SallyMander]

5. Yeah... wtf???

:rofl:

[Pierre.Suave]

3. Take a shower first...

:P

Interesting wiki page there!

[SallyMander]

6. ???

You just wanted to imagine me in the shower, right? :rofl:

[Pierre.Suave]

7. yes

absent skunk smell too.

:P

[SallyMander]

8. For that you need a tomato soup bath

Blech! :P

[Pierre.Suave]

10. What ever

Sallymanders are much sexier when they dont smell like skunk.

:rofl:

[XemaSab]

9. No comment

n/t

[SallyMander]

12. I knew you were Kevin Roscioli!

:rofl:

[flvegan]

11. What's a "chesse curls"

[SallyMander]

13. They're what skunks cut low on

Duh! :eyes:


:rofl:

[Jamastiene]

14. ...

:spray:

Skunks are going to be the new white penises.

[SallyMander]

41. Kick

:evilgrin:

[redqueen]

15. Ohhhhhkay.

Gotta love Wiki :P

[SallyMander]

16. Yup,,, we figure a couple guys were having a good night

and decided they know a whole lot about skunks! :rofl:

[Deja Q]

17. What about toads? Do they eat toads?

:rofl:

[SallyMander]

18. Toads eat themselves

If you know what I mean.


:rofl:

[Deja Q]

19. Not me. Since the neck surgery my range of motion has been reduced.

:spray:

[SallyMander]

20. OMG!

:spray:

:spank:

[Danger Mouse]

21. Wiki editing while high is never a good idea.

[SallyMander]

22. What are you talking about? That's pure genius right there!

:rofl: :rofl:

[bluesbassman]

23. Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

[Withywindle]

24. Heee, I almost did that once.

Wandering around lightly buzzed with a guy I was dating on some grassy promontory near the beach in Massachusetts. I'm one of those dumb animal lovers who will walk up to almost anything and try to pet it. In the dark, through the tall grass, through my mild tipsiness, I called out to what I thought was a fluffy little black-and-white cat....

NOT a cat, I realized - in time but just barely. :blush:

[bluesbassman]

25. *Snort* I can just picture the scene...

Here kitty, kitty.... NOT kitty....NOT KITTTTTY!....AAAAAAGH!!!!:rofl: Classic!

[Withywindle]

28. I know, right?

The sad thing is, I grew up in the woods. I'm a park ranger's daughter. I KNOW better. And yet, in that moment, I nearly became a walking, stinking, city-slicker stereotype. :rofl:

[csziggy]

26. I DID play with skunks when I was a very young child!

A family of what was locally known as "civet cats" but are actually spotted skunks had moved into a pile of bricks in our back yard and I would go out and play with the "kitties." Mom would come out to get me and be afraid to get close or call loudly to me because she did not want them to spray.

One day while I was at school, one fell into one of our garbage cans. Mom called our vet to see if he would remove the scent glands so I could have it as a pet, but no vet in town would take on that challenge. So she got Dad to use a very long pole to knock over the can to let it loose. That end of the yard smelled like skunk for a long time, especially when the weather was damp.

I still have a certain fondness for skunks to this day...

/image_preview

[Mugu]

29. When I was just a child (about 50 years ago) I had a pet skunk.

I remember that we got a phone call and then hurried to my grandfather's house. When we got there he gave mom a shoebox with this tiny little black creature about the size of a small mouse. It hadn't even opened its eyes yet. Once we had it home mom fed it eight or ten times a day with an eyedropper. I don't remember much about the skunk while it was growing up except that once it opened its eyes everywhere mom went, that skunk went. Mom would go out to do yard work and the skunk was always within a few feet of her. All the neighbors were curious, but always yelled their questions so they didn't need to get close. At night he was keep in the basement and as long as he lived with us there were no bugs to be found in the basement.

Dad named the skunk Merc which I always thought was pronounced Mert. It wasn't until I was taking college chemistry that it finally dawned on me that it was short for mercaptan.

Mert was kind of like a cross between a cat and a dog, he loved to play chase, but also loved to curl up in your lap and be petted. We had a linoleum floor in the kitchen and he had long skunk toenails. He would stomp his feet on the toe of your shoe to get your attention and then try to run away. But, his toenails made it difficult for him to get going, and once he did, he had a difficult time stopping. But, once he got stopped he would hike his tail at you and look over his shoulder to see if he had your attention. If you paid him no attention, the process started all over until you chased him around the kitchen.

I was in either kindergarten or the first grade when the school had a bring your pet for Show & Tell. All the other kids brought their dogs and cats, you can guess who I brought. Mom knew how to carry Mert so he couldn't raise his tail. A skunk won't spray if it can't raise its tail so mom would let him stand on her forearm while holding his tail between her upper arm and her side.

Anyway, the teacher just assumed that Mert had been descented. Once mom informed her that Mert indeed had full facilities she was asked to leave and Mert never went to school again.

[SallyMander]

30. What a great story!

:rofl:

Mert makes me want a pet skunk! :D

[soleiri]

33. Best skunk story ever!

Thank you for sharing.

[csziggy]

36. That is so neat! I wish we had been able to have one of the spotted skunks as a pet

Though I really do not generally approve of keeping normally wild animals as pets.

I did have a black and white cat that I named Mephitis because he looked like a skunk. Another cat I owned was more white than black so I named him Sitihpem. :eyes:

I once took a black widow spider to school for Show & Tell and got sent home when the English teacher found the jar it was in. She (the spider) couldn't have gotten out, but the teacher was arachnophobic and almost went into hysterics. Strangely that teacher never liked me after that...

[Withywindle]

46. D'awwwww

What a great story!

I always kind of wanted one, honestly. They really are terribly cute.

[DemBones DemBones]

48. Ack! We just watched Pepe le Pew tonight and

he was putting the moves on a tuxedo cat that he thought was a skunk because she had spilled white paint down her back in a perfect stripe. Too funny to see it here.

[fizzgig]

31. my dad used to have a skunk that hung around his house

he keeps food on the back porch for our cats and anyone else who is hungry and the skunk started eating his meals there. it was a bit of a shock the first time i saw him, but we got used to each other after a bit. he and the cats never bothered each other, thank gods :rofl:

[SallyMander]

37. I think they are super cute

Glad the cats didn't try to get too close! When I was a kid our dog got sprayed... she stunk for WEEKS, at least! :rofl:

Hope you're having a good weekend! :hug:

[SPKrazy]

32. Chess curls? Eat themselves if you know what I mean?

yes this is why Wiki is not a legit source of info for scientific purposes, or even just referencing it.

:rofl:

[SallyMander]

38. What, I based my whole dissertation on Wikipedia

Do you think that's a bad idea??? :silly:

:hi:

[leftyclimber]

42. Well, if your committee thought it was okay....

:rofl:

[SallyMander]

44. Oh, I haven't asked them yet

I'm waiting to surprise them at my defense. ;)

[SPKrazy]

43. No Sally, I think It Is A Splendid Idea

Wikipedia just needs to be accepted as a valid source

[SallyMander]

45. That's just what I thought!

:toast:

:rofl:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

34. Every time I see someone wright about skunks, I think 'bout this

[SallyMander]

39. OMG, cute!!!

I hope they didn't get sprayed though! Don't know if the babies can spray when they're little... :o

:hi:

[XemaSab]

47. Aww!

:o

[skygazer]

35. I was not aware of the chesse curl problem

:rofl:

We had a mama skunk for several years here at our place. She lived under the tool shed and every year she'd have a litter. Baby skunks are hands down the cutest creatures on the face of the planet and Mom was so used to people and cats that she was totally relaxed around us. The babies would scamper right up to you and nibble on your shoes. I tried to get photos several times but they were always so delighted to see me, they'd get too close to photograph well.

I haven't seen the female for a couple of years. I miss my yearly skunk babies. :(

I think I took these with my phone - the first shows one on the trail romping toward me. The second shows one or two of them clustered around my feet.

[SallyMander]

40. Awww, cuuuuute!

Can the babies still spray you if they're scared? Or just the adults? That must have been so neat, seeing the babies every year! Maybe one of them will come back when they're having their own babies! :)