Stayed awake all night last night and was out every two hours looking for skunks. Only saw one baby at around 4:00 a.m. No more families or groups just one visitor  looking for new territory to set up camp. Our No Vacancy sign is out in clear view.

This morning, I used 15 bags of clay litter to seal up the entrances to the two dens. Once they were sealed, I ran chicken wire around the entrances and secured all the edges down tight. I buried the wire about 8 inches below the ground as skunks are excellent burrowers. We had some old bricks piled behind the shop, so I used those bricks to further anchor my handiwork and discourage the skunks from digging.

There are now three of our cat traps that sustained some substantial damage from the adult skunks. Mike said two are beyond repair.our fishing net that we used to help capture the babies became another victim, skunks,   being such excellent burrowers, their claws are extremely sharp. Two managed to escape out of the net by shredding it in a matter of seconds. These items have been added to our Wish List.

Kota (who usually has to stayin his pen when he is outside) gave me clear confirmation this morning that the skunks were gone. When I let him out of his pen (after I finished my work on the dens) instead of running up the back stairs of the house, he took off like a crazy dog and did wide laps all the way back to the creek! After he got sprayed- he wanted nothing to do with the areas where the skunks normally were found. He must have done 20 laps and it was just joyous to watch him be the happy, energetic puppy. He was telling me, Look Mom, they are gone, I can be free again!

Our property still smells like skunk every so often but within a week, I am hoping all that will go away. Gone with the wind, so to speak.

This has been a very sobering lesson for us here. What a senseless waste of wildlife. Food at the feral feeder at night is now non-existent. During the day, the food trays are set up on the highest platform that is five feet high. We are not even setting out the food on the shelves below. Isn’t going to happen any longer.No food on the ground now period.

We still have to solve two more problems. Chessa, our outdoor kitty we got from Meow Village three years ago who also has hyperthyroidism- how to feed her because she can’t jump due to early abuse, where and how do we feed her? And how to add another entrance/exit to the new 24 hr.feeding room because I have a kitty ambusher who guards the only entrance/exit and won’t let all the cats inside to eat. But once we figure these last two problems out, our property will definitely be a skunk-free zone.

Last night was supposed to be my last night of sleep depravation regarding the skunk issue. I left food on the ground at 9:00 p.m. just to be sure I didn’t miss a baby in this round-up of sorts.

I went out at 11:00 to discover, there was not one baby feeding but two! I quickly set the traps thinking that if this was just Mike and I in the middle of the boonies living with no neighbors- we’d just let these animals alone.That’s sadly not the case though.

Something inside told me to bait up four traps, so I did. It is now 5:00 a.m. and there are four more babies trapped and in the shop covered with tarps! How in the world could we have 18 skunks and NOT know it? These trapped ones, I think there are three adults and one baby. Hard to tell in the dark and ducking skunk spray! I know that there were times in the past when I wondered how the babies got so quickly from the feeding station to under the house. After all, skunks are not cheetahs when it comes to speed. I just figured, since they are excellent burrowers that they had elaborate tunnels they were using. I didn’t have a clue that we had more than 10 skunks here. 🙁

I am sitting here trying to get everything under control within myself based on the last few days and what has happened. I’ve learned more about people  than I care to know. I learned that skunks, although they are beautiful and beneficial creatures not everyone sees that. They only see (and smell) what comes out of their backend anal gland when they are startled, upset or cornered. Funny the skunks aren’t the anal creatures in this scenario.

It came down to the fact that even though, we did everything possible to prevent them from liking it around here. They had turned into habitual feeders and they did not want to leave. We built elevated feeding platforms for the outside cats to use. We completely stripped one of the outside enclosures and are using it for a feeding room at night. There is not one ounce of cat food outside on the ground of this property and hasn’t been for awhile. There is no food left out after 7:00 p.m. not even on the elevated platforms because the coons would come to feed and throw kibble everywhere! Didn’t matter, the skunks came back. They were out day and night- started challenging and fighting with the cats. Something  I had never witnessed and hope never to again. They were spraying neighbors, neighbor’s pets, me- in other words, they were pissed off.

So I called around and tried to find out if I could trap them and relocate them. Nope, not since 2015 can you do that. I had called biologists, wildlife locators, wildlife controllers they all said the same thing. You have to kill them.

I don’t kill animals, I rescue them. I knew I couldn’t do it, so I asked one of the controllers I had talked to previously what his cost was for his service. (He said he was the cheapest in the valley). $225.00 for initial evaluation and set up, then $65.00 a skunk, $75.00 removal fee plus travel costs. He was very nice, told me the “best” thing I could do was bait and trap them- then shoot them right between the eyes. He added “Don’t get sprayed, but if you do, mix up 1 quart of Hydrogen Peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and a splash of DAWN liquid soap. “Works wonders!” He said, he was right about that.

The family is gone now. They won’t be coming back. I did not do the dirty deed and I cried for days after it was over. One of my neighbors, I overheard him say to his friend. “I told you she was crazy, she’s crying over dead skunks!”  Yes, I am crying over a family of ten skunks who wanted nothing else but to survive and in the end, they lost the battle in a major way and now they are headed for the landfill..

A few days ago, I had to run to town and it was so hot, that I left Kota inside his cage inside the house. (Mike was asleep).

On the way home from town I looked down the highway and saw a big, black dog with a wavy tail running down Hwy 20! My first thought was “How in the world did Kota get out of his cage and the house and follow me?” To my horror, the dog that had been running along the side of the hwy suddenly veered into the road and almost got hit by the car in front of me.

My heart was in my throat and I pulled over and jumped out of the truck screaming Kota’s name over and over again. I had left the side of the truck door open and the dog appeared behind the truck and jumped into the truck. Shaking, I slammed the door and jumped into the driver’s seat and turned to give holy heck to Kota only to discover, it was NOT Kota at all!

I took the dog home, scanned him for a chip and he was chipped thank the Lord, and so I called and got in touch with the owner. She was driving the narrows looking for her dog when I called and was at our house within 20 minutes. When she got there, she was still in her pj’s. She told me that they had adopted this dog about six months ago and the dog hadn’t even been out of the shelter long enough to figure anything out. The dog was adopted out twice but returned the next day both times and they were her last hope for a good home.

The gal was really nice, I took her inside to meet Kota and Mike and she saw all the cats and asked why there were so many. When I told her we were a non-profit cat sanctuary, her eyes grew big and she smiled and said that she wanted to help out.

This morning, we received a delivery of several bags of Whiskas, a new larger than life litter pan, a gallon jug of Nature’s Miracle and a new four level cage! I can use the cage to continue Solo’s introduction into the house and the food was such a blessing. We met all over a rescue of a dog who doesn’t know what it is like to be a dog and we have formed a friendship that I believe will last a lifetime.

Here is our new cage-

Small strides are being made with Solo. During feeding time, he can get along with the other cats, even going so far as to sharing the same food plate as PITA. Take away the food and he becomes the great stalker and will pounce and attack anything on four legs that moves.

Right now, we have decided to let him take up residence in the bedroom. We have a cat proof screen door we use for first-time introductions and although he has been here now for almost two months, we are starting from scratch and allowing the cats to meet only through the door.

So far, no one has stepped up to adopt him. Will run other ads this weekend to see if I can generate any interest in him. There was one instance where a family contacted a friend of mine who posted him on her FB asking if the tip of his tail was white. (it’s not) They sent a photo of their cat who vanished three years ago and he really does resemble their Pumpkin kitty same age and all. But his orange tail is simply orange no other color visible so it isn’t him. I suppose I could put white-out on his tail and say it’s good? LOL  I did ask them if they wanted to adopt him in their cat’s stead, but right now they are homeless as well, living out of their RV with three other cats while their home is being built which won’t be ready for 6 months. Not ideal. But for a minute, there was a glimmer of hope.

I’m in the process of working with a wildlife controller to trap these skunks and turn them over to him. He is sanctioned by the Fish and Wildlife Department- so everything is legal. The sad part about it, is when he does get the skunks trapped and in his hands- his only option according to Fish and Game is to euthanize them. That’s what they do here in Oregon. They can’t allow the family to be relocated to another area for a myriad of reasons, so that makes me sad, but it is clear, they can’t stay here any longer. They are not moving on and according to the wildlife biologist I had a spirited conversation with, I have turned them into habitual feeders and they will not move on- just keep on having more babies.

Once they are gone, my whole feeding routine will have to be changed to discourage any other skunks from coming here. My fingers are crossed that I can trap these critters in the coming days and turn them over to him before they cause more damage to the neighbors property and cause more problems between us.

No one has stepped up to adopt this boy, so it falls on us to reverse the damage done to him before he arrived here and try to help him find balance in his life, so he can co-exist peacefully with people and other animals.

He has attitude which is rare for the orange boys. So far, any cat that I attempt to put him with has failed. He is full-on Alpha in the presence of other cats (and dogs). When it comes to people he is loving to the point of being scary. He is so starved for affection that he will attack you when you stop petting him. Yesterday, he nailed me right above my glasses when I bent down to grab my shoes, after petting him for a few minutes. If I hadn’t been wearing my glasses, he would have easily nailed my eye.

In the mornings, when I let the inside cats out, I will open up the tunnel doors and allow him inside. That will be the first step. I have told Mike repeatedly that if Solo makes an appearance near him, to please just ignore him. This is hard for Mike to do, but as I explained, this is not permanent. This is just the first step of many to tone down his aggressive tendencies and let him walk freely through the house.

When the other cats come inside, it is usually a matter of minutes before they meet each other and the screaming starts. Then I go in to break it up and put him into the tunnel, leaving him to stay in the big enclosure all by himself. Hopefully, with time, this conditioning will show him that he must behave like a cat and not a tomcat in the presence of other kitties. We will just see how this goes.

I am always happier to work with the true feral cats and not ones that have been owned by clueless, ignorant or cruel people. You can always work with the feral ones, but when people are the ones who mix up the cat’s natural instincts and create in essence monsters of a different sort, that is a higher challenge.

Case in point, our Lincoln kitty. He was owed by an elderly woman who had simply lost her mind. He wasn’t allowed to eat until he sat up in a chair at the dining room table, accepted a  bib put over his neck and then had a fork and spoon duct taped to his paws! Seriously, I do not make this chit up! Talk about a royal mess when he arrived here well over ten years ago. Now, he interacts well with other cats but wants nothing to do with humans and who could blame him? Just the removal of the duct tape residue build-up on his pads would have made any burn victim cringe. The process was painful.

We allow him to wander freely outside and live life on his terms. It took awhile for that to happen, he was that messed up.

So Solo is a challenge because of how his human treated him. We are hoping in time, to reverse the damage and let him live the rest of his days among new feline friends.

This morning when I let Kota outside into his pen, he rushed to the back where the bushes are located. I stepped inside, and then I smelled it- he had gotten skunked. I raced over and because it was a baby, it wasn’t a lot of spray (had it been an adult) Kota would have backed off immediately and raced back to me. But, it was enough to make an impact. The baby saw me coming and charged me and YUCK I got it as well.

Thank God for Nature’s Remedy and hot showers. Don’t feed into the myth about tomato juice. I learned when I got skunked years ago, that does not work! The baby may have been small, but she was mighty! LOL
She kept charging me most of her oil fell on my shoes and jeans.Not a good start to the day-

Back in May, I posted that after we suffered through a bad flood in the house, a contractor arrived and looked at the damage and told us that through a special program, he would bring his team over and do the work (completely remodeling our bathroom) for free. He said the store they work with would donate everything we needed to make this work and he would do the labor for free. The job consists of tearing out the bathroom completely and replacing shower,  sink and toilet- widening the door so that Mike could at least get the wheelchair into the room. I was so stunned because we had over a dozen contractors here looking at the job in the weeks before- most of them said it was going to be a $5,000 job. No one wanted to tackle it for less.

We did put in an insurance claim, but when the adjuster encountered dry rot all support on that end stopped. We were asked why we didn’t catch the leak sooner? How were we supposed to know that the previous owners had put down new tile over old (there were 5 layers of tile on our floor and the leak was under the third layer!) How did we know, since we are on a well  not city water. There was no bill to show a spike that all this water was flooding our home. We didn’t realize it until the water spread to the living room carpet and kept soaking the rug. I was blaming Kota at first when the stain appeared although the only time he ever had an accident was his first night with us. Plus the wetness did not smell like pee.

I did call the contractor last month, to find out when they might be able to start the job,  but the phone call did not go over well. I won’t call again. I don’t know what we are going to do now but when I go into the bathroom, I feel like the floor is going to collapse on me. It is quite scary.

I come from a time where your word was your bond. You shook hands, you helped your neighbors. And if you couldn’t deliver on a promise, you never promised in the first place. There were barn raises, hamburger frys on the weekends, neighborhood block parties. People had love of God, values, morals and manners. All of that seems to be lacking these days and this makes me feel sad… and very old.

Leaving them without food at night although a good plan, well it backfired on me this morning at least. When I opened up the gate to go into the back to feed, there were babies everywhere. They were not in a good mood either LOL

I had Kota on lead and these three babies blocking our way, they were not moving. Nothing that I did seemed to matter to them because of their agitated state. Then two of them stopped stamping and turned around and I knew we were in trouble. As I fled past them with Kota reluctantly in tow- they let us both have it. Thankfully it was the babies and they are still just tooting instead of full-on spraying. Had it been mom and dad we would have really got a full frontal assault. All the yard cats moved rather quickly away from the stench and I had to wait for a few hours to go out and feed everyone.

I am still holding firm to not putting food out at night. Tomorrow, I will just have to be prepared to do battle if it comes to that. Not sure if a squirt bottle might move things along without incident. I will think of something to prevent another spray takedown. LOL

The skunk babies are getting so big now. Last night, when I went to feed at midnight, they were all over the place waiting for me to put out food. I looked at our barn cats that were over on the other side of the property and decided to just stop feeding dry food after dark. The midnight ramblers (what I call the stray and feral cats who come in after dark) will just have to learn that food will be available until it gets dark. I can’t keep feeding these skunks here- it’s hard enough to keep the cats fed let alone the wildlife.

They are out all day long- but the hope is when I stop providing midnite snacks they will hopefully move right along and find other places with more natural food. They don’t seem to like the wet food, but they devour the dry. There’s a fairly large forest right behind our place so I am hoping they will move off into the woods. Time will tell-

Solo, the orange kitty removed from that parked car over a month ago is now up for adoption. I am hoping to find the person with the right heart and home to help this special needs kitty find a forever home. The challenge is not only his age, but how pet aggressive he can become if you aren’t careful. I do not think he would be good with an elderly person or small kids. He is so starved for affection that it does become a bit dicey once you start petting him. Another challenge is his age- he is between 9-11 years old (bad teeth) so it is hard to tell. But his tarter has been scraped off and other than a bit of drooling he is in good health. His selling point is he is orange and they are usually in demand.

We’ve moved him from the smaller enclosure into the large one that attaches to the house. We want him to get used to the other kitties without copping an attitude. So far, he charges the other kitties when they come up to say hello. He does the same to Kota, so therein lies the final challenge. He needs to be an only kitty or one of only two cats in the house. He might get used to one cat, but more than one, he wants nothing to do with them.

Enjoy the photos taken by my friend Midge: This is his dance for affection