The other night I took a late night shower.
NOT after fantastic pre-bed time sex, no, I had a date with this one here, Pepe:
For months I have been jinxing myself commenting on how I am so damn lucky that my dogs have not encountered a skunk spray yet, because we have about two skunks per resident in Jeffries Point right now….they are EV-ER-Y-WHERE.
Well. The other night we all did. The little motherfucker was out. Now, I know they are out at night, but this little guy was about to ring the doorbell on a house on Webster Street apparently. Not sure what he was about to deliver to them, but basically he was three stairs up, in front of a door and it was 10:30 at night, so I wasn’t really expecting little black and white asshole there. Naturally he was offended threatened by my presence and IGNORED the fact that for months and months I have let him and his buddies live their life peacefully, even ASSISTED in a skunk baby rescue, going out of MY way to get out of THEIR way.
I digress.
I got sprayed.
Oh. My. Fucking. God. The smell was just awful. I raced home and managed to get rid of the smell by using a layer of multiple body scrubs and shower gels. No one will ever call me a product whore again and laugh. Then, naturally, I figured out that Fabulous Dog also had a patch of skunk on his back and Lani also had one, on her head…so then we had to do the same body scrub/shower gel treatment on both dogs.
Enough is enough, I told myself.
The next day I filed a complaint on the Mayor’s Constituent Service. I have had a great experience with is previously to get a new recycle can, so I figured why not. I then emailed the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association and asked the group organizer to encourage members to do the same. I figured strength lies in numbers and if enough of us, maybe something will happen. My neighbor contacted Channel 5 we got this story on TV.
This is the deal:
We have so many skunks here, this morning I saw 3 withing the first 20 seconds of my walk at around 6 am. However, they are also out during the day, which either means they are sick or they are assimilating to a different lifestyle.
They live in the brush along the Greenway, Harborwalk and in Piers Park (HELLO MASSPORT, your cops comment ALL the time that they have never seen so many skunks….maybe something to look into).
They are absolutely not afraid of humans.
I am no skunk hater, but this is insane.
To the people who are feeding the stray cats around here: YOU ARE FEEDING THE SKUNKS. I can’t even tell you how often I have seen skunks eat the cat kibble while the cats stay in safe distance. Stop it.
To the city who is NOT reinforcing the “YOU NEED A FUCKING TRASH BIN” law: Please give people tickets and make them store their trash in bins! How hard is that! Seriously, and great income for the city. Anyone at city hall, if you read this, our trash day is Wednesdays. These trash bags get ripped open by cats and skunks. This morning I saw a poor skunk with a jogurt container stuck on his head (I called animal control and left a message and later some dude tried to help…I had to leave as my two dogs were flipping out).
To the people who say that skunks are the natural enemy of rodents: True story, but don’t be crazy, these skunks are SMART. They eat our trash. Why chase a rat if you can have yourself a delicious bit of pizza crust out of the non existent trash can up the street.
And to whoever at animal control who told a resident that they won’t do anything until a skunk has rabies? SERIOUSLY, that’s just an asshole response. I get it, you are overworked and underpaid, but isn’t this a bit of a public safety issue. If you have two skunks per damn resident? They shit and pee all over the place. They are wild animals. They carry diseases. People have cats that go out into the homes, children playing in yards where these fuckers defecate and really, I am ALL OVER walking my dogs being charged by a fucking skunk with rabies. Not a solution, that advice buddy.
haha… I was led here by Universal Hub. And when I got here I got confused… wondering which link exactly I’d clicked. :)
Remind me to tell you the story of my mom saving a skunk’s life sometime. She swears he remembered her and that’s why she never got sprayed. ;)
How can skunks look so cute and be so evil?
I hate them. We don’t have too many around here (I’ve only seen one once and smelled one a couple of times), but god they’re awful.
Complaining is good! Very good!
The smell is the worst…and so hard to get rid of…good for you for doing a little rabble rousing!
Preach on sister. Living on Sumner, you can barely even walk out the door at any time of day without these stinking,striped little jerks eying you down. Never been sprayed myself… yet. They gots to go.
I have been having an ongoing feud with my neighbors because they do not put their trash in bins. Not only does it attract skunks, but once their bags are ripped open, the contents are left on my property and guess who has to clean it up. Not them!
Unfortunately, they are not doing anything illegal by not putting their trash in bins. But they are still assholes.
Their laziness is being paid for by others (you getting sprayed). We’ve always had a skunk problem but it really has gotten out of control.
I’m glad you took steps to bring attention to the issue!
Yikes – sorry to hear that about animal control, but that’s actually true since skunks are a huge rabies risk in MA (another reason to be pissed off they are such a problem – and not to feed them or come anywhere near them). It’s not their jurisdiction if there’s no exposure. You could push the question up to the state level – I checked with the state public health vet on your behalf :) and she said the MA Dept of Fisheries and Game has a sub-department called Mass Wildlife that would be the ones to talk to about this. – http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/. Good luck :)
Ooh here you go: there’s a link at the bottom for a district office to call if you have an issue..
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/wildlife/pac/pac_home.htm
Thank you. I will try….I know that a neighbor already called them last week and was blown off. But worth another shot! :)
This has got to be the only laugh I got this week since my dog got sprayed in the face. What a God awful experience that no one should have to deal with TWICE in my six year old dog. My dog likes to play with a black cat and I guess he thought this was him. Well surprise and for all of us. Now my dog won’t go out at night unless I am next to him and all he does is stand next to me. My house really got skunked too! I would like to get a B-B gun and shoot their butt.
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