Last night our dogs were frantic because of a visitor they couldn’t get to due to our invisible fence.
What can be seen in the center of the photo is the business end of a skunk walking through our landscaping, protected from the dogs by the invisible fence. After some considerable amount of time they calmed down and resigned themselves to staying in for the night.
Today was uneventful, but tonight when I let them out after feeding them it wasn’t long before I heard a commotion outside and went out to find the body of the skunk on the platforms leading to our back deck. After disposing of the corpse I called our dogs, buried my nose in the fur of each of them in turn, and there was a faint smell of skunk but nothing overpowering (which is what I expected). According to our neighbor, skunks need some time to “reload” after spraying in response to a threat, in this case her dogs the day before. “You’re welcome,” she said when I told her what had happened to Frankie and Maggie.
Part of rural living is co-existing with various animals. It’s sometimes beautiful – the deer under the crabapple tree, the hummingbirds and butterflies in Suzanne’s garden, the hawk soaring overhead – and sometimes less so. The snapping turtle in the front yard, the vegetable thieves in the garden, the squirrels taking up residence in our walls and attic, and the skunks. Of course, as far as the turtle, the rabbits, the squirrels, and the skunks are concerned, it’s not our yard, or driveway, or house. It’s just part of the world they live in, and the fact that we humans (and dogs) are hanging out in the same space is only important to them if we are some kind of threat. The skunk shares its space with the squirrel and the hawk and the deer and it’s really not an issue, and its potent defense means it can pretty much go about its day as it pleases (most of the time).
If you think about it, it’s kind of arrogant for us to say that no animal or insect can occupy our territory without our permission, but we do make that claim and build fences, spray poison, and hire professionals, all to deal with the forms of life we find objectionable in some way. We not only do not want to be threatened, it seems, we don’t want to be inconvenienced. The fact is that this stance means we miss out on a lot of beauty, and that’s a shame. We can use all the beauty we can get.