Skunk encounter, my preparedness ?'d

hemiram said:

They planned a culling of them, but people blew a gasket over that

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I think if I'd have lived there, I'd had my own cull. Skunks first, then the d@mned bluejays! Ain't nobody messin' with my dog!

Mac

ApacheCoTodd said:

The plug shouldn't have mattered.

Two rounds should have been plenty for Pepé Le Pew.... Pew.

Todd.

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I always thought those plugs were abominations.

Yeah, supposedly "prevents" skybusting, but that's pure BS. Frankly, if I screw up on a waterfowl shot, I might actually need one or more of those extra shots to bring the game down and limit its suffering. I never did much upland hunting, but the same philosophy pertains.

Ditto with the 5-round limit for rifle hunting. Stupid. Just plain stupid.

Another sample of an issue I'm in the minority on. Take it or leave it.

Terry, 230RN

Yeah, ya' gotta take note of noise in the night...
Looked out after the dog woke me with a mighty roar at 0200 awhile back, walked out on the porch in time to see a parade of of 1 large and 4tiny striped critters with flags flying...
Light off, back ta' bed...
Hell with that...

bayjoe said:

Here in southern Colorado January and February is time for skunk mating.I shot 15 last year with one coming up to the yard in the middle of the afternoon, looked like he may have been rabid. This year i've only shot one. I figure the drought probably had something to do with it
Why is it they come around and it seems they spray for no reason.
Did have a badger hanging around for a while till my wife came face to face with him when she walked out the front door.View attachment 980441

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That badger is just tooo cool!

MacAR said:

I think if I'd have lived there, I'd had my own cull. Skunks first, then the d@mned bluejays! Ain't nobody messin' with my dog!

Mac

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One shot and the local cops would have been swooping down on you like you were a serial killer. You probably wouldn't even make it by with an airgun, someone would call on you.
I have never seen Blue Jays as big as they are there. And as mean as they are. Between the Jays and Cardinals, and the bees/hornets, Blackie was the target more often than any of my other dogs were. She was probably brain damaged after a very long and difficult birth so I can't really blame her for not getting the point to stay away from them. She was a happy girl most of the time. The cardboard collar was to keep her from licking her legs. They looked at one point like she had been burned in a fire. The cardboard collar would eventually get so floppy we had to make a new one. It took a year for the hair to regrow to normal on her legs. After that, she was fine until the end at almost 14.

hemiram said:

One shot and the local cops would have been swooping down on you like you were a serial killer. You probably wouldn't even make it by with an airgun, someone would call on you.
I have never seen Blue Jays as big as they are there. And as mean as they are. Between the Jays and Cardinals, and the bees/hornets, Blackie was the target more often than any of my other dogs were. She was probably brain damaged after a very long and difficult birth so I can't really blame her for not getting the point to stay away from them. She was a happy girl most of the time. The cardboard collar was to keep her from licking her legs. They looked at one point like she had been burned in a fire. The cardboard collar would eventually get so floppy we had to make a new one. It took a year for the hair to regrow to normal on her legs. After that, she was fine until the end at almost 14.
View attachment 981176

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ahhh.... the cardboard disc-of-shame!

Todd.

Jr live trapped a skunk one time, while he was trying to thin the neighborhood coon population. Since he wanted the hide he dispatched it and skinned it out. Only thing is he made one slip of the knife in cleaning it out. He threw the carcass in our garbage can and went to the local dollar store to get a few bottles of peroxide. (We live in a large city). When he got back he mentioned that he would be moving the carcass, since the dollar store was about 3/4 mile down wind and he had no problem smelling his handy work.

ApacheCoTodd said:

ahhh.... the cardboard disc-of-shame!

Todd.

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Better than King's cone of misery about 12 years later:

The whole problem with it was it wasn't clear, and it just made him a total mess. He had never been "down" before, and he was just miserable.
I swapped it for a clear one and within a few minutes, he was back to his normal evil self and messing with his poor sister Molly. Both times he wore the cone, when he was neutered and again when he had to have one of his anal sacs removed, you had to keep it on him 24/7 until he got to the vet's to have the stitches removed, or, as he did both times, he would remove them himself and do a nice job of it too. The second time he had that cone on, he was crashing into things, including my legs and I took it off of him without thinking about how 5 years earlier he had removed his stitches after being neutered. Besides, he was having them out in the morning anyway, so about 6am, I took it off. I don't know when or where he did it, but he got them all out, so the trip to the vet was totally pointless.

hemiram said:

Better than King's cone of misery about 12 years later:
View attachment 982178
The whole problem with it was it wasn't clear, and it just made him a total mess. He had never been "down" before, and he was just miserable.
I swapped it for a clear one and within a few minutes, he was back to his normal evil self and messing with his poor sister Molly. Both times he wore the cone, when he was neutered and again when he had to have one of his anal sacs removed, you had to keep it on him 24/7 until he got to the vet's to have the stitches removed, or, as he did both times, he would remove them himself and do a nice job of it too. The second time he had that cone on, he was crashing into things, including my legs and I took it off of him without thinking about how 5 years earlier he had removed his stitches after being neutered. Besides, he was having them out in the morning anyway, so about 6am, I took it off. I don't know when or where he did it, but he got them all out, so the trip to the vet was totally pointless.

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I've come to realize that those things are an inherently bad idea for some - if not most - dogs regardless the *benefit*.

I live in a closer interrelationship with our dogs than most people - being fortunate enough to have what dogs we choose to house with us nigh-on 24 hours of most any given day.

Watching some dogs you attend to that much cope with the dramatic, profound disruption in their ability to garner and assess input from their sense while wearing one of those is shocking.

Todd.

Speaking of skunks...
It smells like Spring is in the air!

Actually, it smells like spring is under the neighbor’s pool deck. Looks like I’ll be cleaning up the trap again.
Now, where to put him...

ApacheCoTodd said:

I've come to realize that those things are an inherently bad idea for some - if not most - dogs regardless the *benefit*.

I live in a closer interrelationship with our dogs than most people - being fortunate enough to have what dogs we choose to house with us nigh-on 24 hours of most any given day.

Watching some dogs you attend to that much cope with the dramatic, profound disruption in their ability to garner and assess input from their sense while wearing one of those is shocking.

Todd.

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The thing was I was in the room with him the whole time, and I had no idea he did it. He wasn't known as "The Evil Genius" for no reason. I was sitting there maybe 3 feet from him and he got out like 6 stitches without me having a clue. I guess he ate them, as I never found anything when I got back home and looked. He was by far the quietest dog I ever had, and often would just "pop out of nowhere" next to you without you hearing him at all before he appeared.

I had a cone on every dog I've owned as an adult at one time or another. My Beagle didn't care about it. Blackie didn't care, my Lab didn't care, my Pit/Mystery mix didn't care, and King's littermate Molly was fine with it, and she was known for being a nervous dog. King went to pieces with the opaque cone, That pic is the only one I have that really shows him being anything less then "neutral". Most of the pics I have of him show him having a great time, messing with Molly, me, or my poor cat Orville. One of the very first pics I took of him show him happily tormenting Molly, who just wants him to cut her some slack:

There are a couple of things about dispatching skunks. The first I learned as a small town officer. Kill them with a 22, nothing bigger. Brain or neck shot only. Paralyzes their spray system for about 15 minutes, giving you time to put them in a trash bag and haul them out of town.

The second my dad told me about. He grew up on a farm during the depression and would skin them for the bounty. Standing in front of the skunk he would get their attention and reach over and grab them by the tail, lifting the rear feet off the ground. A skunk has to have their rear feet on the ground to spray. Using his other hand, break the neck and skin immediately.