My friend, Dove had some errands to run and asked me to keep her kids. I was happy to, since I love kids and I am a 'volunteer Grandma" to them. They call me "Grandma" and I spoil them accordingly. It's a beautiful, Indian summer day. We can play outside!
I rushed around to get some laundry in and clean the house a little, so I could focus on spoiling them once they get here. I carried the trash and noticed something had pulled a bunch of trash through a hole near the bottom of the barrel. Probably one of the barn cats.
Taylin (12), Emma (6), and Jack (2) arrived at about 10:30 and the first order of business was coffee milkshakes made in the Keurig. Don't worry. There was more ice cream than coffee. Jack held up his sippee cup and said, "I want cobbee". How could I say no? He only took two sips.
Next, we headed out to the haystack, stopped to see the newly-weaned, bawling calves, and took a quick peek in the barn. It was then that Taylin yelled, "A skunk! There's a skunk!" Sure enough and it was headed for the trash barrels. Hmmm. Probably going back for another snack. I hurried the kids and dogs to the house. I called Randy and asked him which gun I should use (Remember, I'm a city girl and one time I tried to kill a skunk with a pistol loaded with bird-shot and all it did was make it blink and duck a little.) Randy told me where I could find more .22 shells and said, "Don't shoot anything you aren't supposed to." Oh he of little faith!
By the time I loaded the gun and made sure the dogs and kids stayed inside, I couldn't find the skunk. For the rest of the afternoon the dogs kept looking in the drain pipe, where the washing machine drains out by the trash barrels, so when Randy got home, we told him we thought the skunk was in there.
So, Country Boy gets a flashlight and looks in and says, "It's in here, you want to see it?" Adventurous Emma was all over that. She got down on the ground and looked. My turn, and I ask, "Won't he spray me?" Randy says, "Not while he's looking at you." So I look and say, "Unless he's a one-eyed skunk, he has turned around!" Yikes!
Randy shot 3 times into the dark drain. I was not about to hold the flashlight once the skunk turned around! "Did you get him?", I asked. "Surely, I must have." he replied. Just then the skunk comes out the other end of the drain pipe, pretty close to where Taylin, Emma, and I are standing. (I had put Jack and the dogs in the house.) I did what any good Volunteer Grandma would do. I screamed and ran first, and then yelled for Taylin and Emma to follow.
Randy went running, gun-in-hand after the skunk. He ran out of shells and Taylin and I ran to the house for more and I grabbed Jack. The skunk went south so we all jumped in the back of the pickup and Randy drove while we all searched the pasture for a wounded skunk.
At this writing, the skunk, who we've decided has 9 lives, IS STILL AT LARGE. We think he may be hiding in the pine trees. Here's hoping he dies and the dogs don't get sprayed.
