Preacherman
Member
This afternoon my neighbor's teenage kid demonstrated conclusively that teenage angst and skunks do not mix well...
His folks had told me a week or two ago that they'd seen skunks wandering around, and warned me to keep an eye out (my house, like theirs, has a crawl-space underneath, and we both use wire and other barriers to stop animals getting in). Well, it seems that this morning, the sounds of movement were detected beneath the kitchen, and an interesting smell was in the air. Dad checked underneath with a flashlight, and found that two skunks had moved in. He went out this afternoon to talk to the local zoo about removing them (they do a lot of that sort of thing), but his teenage son decided that he'd show Dad that he was able to handle the problem.
Teenage son duly took Dad's Ruger 10/22, lay down next to the house, inserted the rifle through the hole in the wire netting, pushed his head and right arm and shoulder in through the hole, lined up the sights, and let fly in the skunks' general direction. Not only did he miss the skunks, he blew a hole in the water pipe leading to the hot-water supply, and water began to spray all over. To add insult to injury, the skunks apparently didn't like the noise and sudden shower, and both let fly in the direction of the shooter, scoring simultaneous direct hits. Teenager was, of course, unable to back out of the way in a hurry, having got hung up on the wire...
Anyway, Dad comes home to find his son sitting on the front porch, with the door and all windows firmly locked; his wife and a plumber trying to sort out the water leak; and half the neighborhood gathered round making helpful suggestions about how to wash skunk smell out of one's hair (to say nothing of the clothes and the rest of the body!). Son's girlfriend, with whom he had a "hot date" scheduled for tonight, arrived at about 6 p.m., took one whiff of his eau de colurghne, and informed him that she was going out with someone else for at least the next fortnight!
When I left for supper, Dad was planning on buying several catering-size tins of tomato paste and forcibly bathing his son in a tin tub in the back yard. One major problem - the water supply is still switched off while the plumber tries to repair the shot pipe! He asked me whether he could bring his son over to my yard to use my hose, and I replied that if he did, I'd be shooting too!
His wife has told him that it will be a divorce matter if "his" son comes back in the house smelling like that. Update tomorrow or Monday...
His folks had told me a week or two ago that they'd seen skunks wandering around, and warned me to keep an eye out (my house, like theirs, has a crawl-space underneath, and we both use wire and other barriers to stop animals getting in). Well, it seems that this morning, the sounds of movement were detected beneath the kitchen, and an interesting smell was in the air. Dad checked underneath with a flashlight, and found that two skunks had moved in. He went out this afternoon to talk to the local zoo about removing them (they do a lot of that sort of thing), but his teenage son decided that he'd show Dad that he was able to handle the problem.
Teenage son duly took Dad's Ruger 10/22, lay down next to the house, inserted the rifle through the hole in the wire netting, pushed his head and right arm and shoulder in through the hole, lined up the sights, and let fly in the skunks' general direction. Not only did he miss the skunks, he blew a hole in the water pipe leading to the hot-water supply, and water began to spray all over. To add insult to injury, the skunks apparently didn't like the noise and sudden shower, and both let fly in the direction of the shooter, scoring simultaneous direct hits. Teenager was, of course, unable to back out of the way in a hurry, having got hung up on the wire...
Anyway, Dad comes home to find his son sitting on the front porch, with the door and all windows firmly locked; his wife and a plumber trying to sort out the water leak; and half the neighborhood gathered round making helpful suggestions about how to wash skunk smell out of one's hair (to say nothing of the clothes and the rest of the body!). Son's girlfriend, with whom he had a "hot date" scheduled for tonight, arrived at about 6 p.m., took one whiff of his eau de colurghne, and informed him that she was going out with someone else for at least the next fortnight!
When I left for supper, Dad was planning on buying several catering-size tins of tomato paste and forcibly bathing his son in a tin tub in the back yard. One major problem - the water supply is still switched off while the plumber tries to repair the shot pipe! He asked me whether he could bring his son over to my yard to use my hose, and I replied that if he did, I'd be shooting too!
His wife has told him that it will be a divorce matter if "his" son comes back in the house smelling like that. Update tomorrow or Monday...
Next thing I know, some pimply kid is capping away at me. No honest teenager needs to shoot at a skunk on his first date!
