Pansy and Petunia

A number of years ago, two little skunk sisters came to the Sanctuary in order to live out their lives with us. You see these little darlings were two of the resulting offspring of trapped skunks that had been used to make money.  Yes, there really are people out there that are so incredibly selfish and cruel that they will take wild animals and exploit them for their own benefit.  This particular individual was live trapping mothers and babies. She would then release the mothers but would keep the babies, have them de-scented and then sell them as pets.  Fortunately the Ministry of Natural Resources was able to stop this person, charge her and fine her for her misdeeds. This however did not help Pansy and Petunia who by this time were desecented and able to return to the wild having no defence against predators.  So like all of the permanent residents at AVWS, they live with us and work as ambassadors of the Sanctuary and educators to young and not so young in the necessity to respect and protect our wildlife.

A few weeks ago we thought it would be a good idea to allow Pansy and Petunia more room to roam and gave them a much larger enclosure. Shortly thereafter, I was sitting in the office when a cry emanated from outside emphasized with a bang on the window.  Jan was shouting,” Get the gloves one of the skinks is trying to escape!”  I immediately jumped up grabbed a pair of gloves and flew out the door to give Jan a hand. There I found her crouched at the corner of the enclosure with half a skunk out and the other half wriggling to get out. This just didn’t look right to me and I told Jan that I really did not think this was one of our skunks but rather than belabour the point went to her aid. As I bent down to help her remove the skunk we simultaneously came to the conclusion that I was right and this was not one of our de scented skunks but rather a fully loaded and really angry wild skunk. At that very moment, Jan was able to extricate the skunk and in doing so turned its tail towards me just as it delivered the spray for which skunks are famous.

Between the coughing and laughing I had to wonder if Pansy and Petunia were finding some satisfaction that they had inadvertently been allowed to spray a human. I hope so as needless to say, my plans for the day changed very quickly starting with a shower, a change of clothes and a lot of scrubbing. The good news?  No one bothered me much that day.