Lessons From Nature
I live 2 blocks away from a creek with a bike path in suburbia. We have seen a lot of different wildlife when we take a walk or bike ride along the bike path. We even saw a beaver in the section of the creek near our house. That was pretty surprising to us. On a recent bike ride with our dog running alongside (but on a leash) we saw 2 large coyote in broad daylight following the creek (about a mile from our house) they were clearly going over to where there is a prairie dog colony. I couldn’t believe they would be out around people in daylight although they were looking around and trying to hide amidst the trees. I’ve only ever seen them out in the daytime in the mountains where we used to live – never in suburbia during the day. And they were huge for coyotes – I thought they were wolves for a minute. Poor prairie dogs – it must suck to be the bottom of the food chain!
Here I am thinking how nice to live so close to the creek and the diverse wildlife that lives along there. Well, there is one creature I do not like and they are ballsy and know they can get away with anything – the Skunk.
I have learned much about the skunk recently namely that they reek just walking around and without even spraying anything. A couple of weeks ago I kept smelling skunk and especially at night when I have the door in my office open for the cool air to come in when I work. Every morning I check the backyard and the garden and nothing is being messed with, I can’t find any veggies being taken or anything. Every night the reek would happen again. I read up on skunk and it said they are omnivores and live within 2 miles of water and are nocturnal. I don’t know what he is after or if he’s in my neighbor’s yard munching on their garden which is not behind a fence like ours is but that really doesn’t deter them, either.
Well, last Thursday night we let the dog out to pee for the night and bam! he goes right after the skunk who was in our yard (it must have just gotten there bec. we checked a few minutes before letting him out) and it sprayed my poor dog and my entire house with all the windows open! So freaking gross!! My entire house REEKED so bad, I didn’t know what to do. I had to get on the computer and look stuff up with a towel over my nose and mouth on how to get the smell out of a house. I had bought this natural enzyme skunk odor remover for pets a while back for “just in case.” I’m glad I remembered that I had it. My husband ran upstairs to shut all the windows and get the enzyme stuff and put the dog in the tub.
The other info I found said to roast some ground coffee in a pan or cookie sheet in an open oven or burn some incense. We ground up coffee beans and I wanted to do it on the stove top instead (thought it would be faster) and used a pyrex bowl for some reason instead of a pan. It started to smoke after a bit which was good but then it caught on fire – not good! I tried to sprinkle water in it to put out the fire without putting a metal spoon in the bowl first to conduct the heat – I know to do this, too – and the freaking thing exploded all over the place! At that point, I was so pissed off at myself for being dumb and for now having to clean up a big glass mess and there was smoke everywhere which I was actually happy about because at least I couldn’t smell the damn skunk anymore!
The upstairs REEKED, too. I sprayed this orange essential oil odor killer spray I have all over the place then I lit up a big white sage smudge stick and smoked up my whole upstairs and downstairs to try and kill the nasty smell. I cranked up my air filter, too but by then my house smelled like burnt coffee, sage and skunk. Nothing really kills the skunk smell and even now, a few days later, I can still smell it lingering in certain areas. Surprisingly, my son stayed asleep throughout all of this which was great because I don’t think I could have dealt with one more thing that night! I have washed more stuff the past few days to try and rid the smell from clothes, bathroom shower curtain, liner, rug, dog beds, the dog himself twice, etc. Unbelievable.
It said in the research that they can spray up to 15 feet away. My husband works with someone that lives about 5 blocks away from us in our neighborhood and he told him the next day about us getting skunked and he said, “We were in bed and my wife yells, skunk! shut the windows!” right around the same time that it happened. I didn’t realize the smell traveled that far that fast. No wonder they are such ballsy animals and no one wants to mess with them!
Now I have to keep the backyard light on if I catch a whiff of Scrappy the Skunk. He’s patrolling our street it seems and I don’t want him back and have told him so telepathically. They really don’t have a predator because no one can stand their smell – except for owl who has a very poor sense of smell. Hmm, I may have to call on owl to come to my area if he doesn’t stay away – I’ve seen them here before but not recently.
I looked up in an animal spirit guide book I have about what it means to have Skunk cross your path:
*Be assertive and stand your ground as necessary and don’t let yourself be manipulated or pushed around.
*Make your self-respect and dignity a top priority, offering the same respect to others.
*You’re taking yourself far too seriously and need to relax, play and trust that everything is all right.
*It’s a good time to deal directly and honestly with that person in your life whom you find so irritating and overbearing.
Not sure who that message is directed towards since there are 3 of us that live here and I take any encounter with wildlife as a sign, a message so we are thinking on this one. When we saw the 2 large coyote in daylight I knew it was for me. Coyote represent the “Heyoka,” also known as the “Trickster” or the “Backwards Shaman.” A big teacher for all in some tough lessons that are not always pleasant. But, they also teach you to lighten up and deal with the situation and learn to find the humor in some difficult lessons.
Skunk must be teaching something to someone here on my block since he keeps coming around to our yards. I just wish he would hang out at the creek instead!
photos: Red-Star, PierceRebecca
August 12 2008 10:50 am | Home and nature and pets
August 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Interesting! Last November my dog was attacked by a skunk in our yard! come to think of it, I think the skunk left after that incident. I wonder if there was a message there
We’ve had a number of skunks over the years. That smell is awful, and impossible to get out of things. Months later my dog will smell skunky when wet. Bleck.
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