Snakes and Skunks

Snakes and Skunks

For over a week I had been noticing strange things in the barn. Most mornings I would find one of the cat food bowls emptied out. Sometimes the bowl would be on its side. If you have ever owned a cat you would know that cats rarely will eat every piece of food in the bowl. They usually eat all the food out of the middle and leave a ring of food around the outer edge of the bowl.

Monday evening, it was already dark when I went out to the barn to feed the horses. I was talking to all the animals like I usually do, but when I walked up to the entrance to the barn I heard scuffling and the sound of claws on concrete.

Finally, I started to piece things together. When I heard the scuffling, I stopped, waited several seconds, then slowly entered the dark barn. I made several steps to the light switch and turned on the light. Just as I suspected, a skunk was waddling across the barn looking for a hiding place.

This was not my first time to be in the barn with a skunk. They love cat food, and this time of year they just seem to come from everywhere to fatten up before winter. I watched the skunk walk to the end of the barn and go behind some aluminum panels I have standing up there.

I knew the skunk didn’t want to interact with me, so I went about the business of feeding the horses and cats. It is a little unnerving to be so close to a skunk, but this was not my first dealings with one.

What I was worried about was the kittens being curious about the skunk. Even though I never smelled any kind of skunk odor over the last week, I am sure that the cats could smell it. I figured it out after the fact that the poop pile on my door mat in front of the tack room was skunk, and not the tomcat that has been stealthily hanging around.

My 3 kittens are now 8 months old. They are big and look like adult cats, but are still very naïve. Much to my relief, they did not bother the skunk where it was hiding. For all I know, they watched it waddle across the paddock and into the barn every night for the last week.

Before we left the barn that night, I set a trap to catch the skunk. I was so sure that he would be hungry enough to go immediately into the trap that my husband and I stood outside the barn with a shotgun for about 15 minutes waiting to heard the sound of the trap snapping shut; no such luck.

The next morning however, I found the skunk waiting for me in the trap. A trapped skunk is a bit different to deal with than a skunk who believes that it can run and hide. A trapped skunk is quick to spray.

I needed to quickly cover the trap before one of the kittens got too close. I have gotten pretty good at sneaking up on the trap and covering it with a couple of towels. Fortunately, skunks have pretty poor eyesight. Once covered, I fed the horses and went off to work.

When we got home from work that evening, our kitten Bart was acting strange. He didn’t come to greet us with the other cats. As a matter of fact, we didn’t see him at all until a little later. When we did see him, he wouldn’t come to us; and he even ran from my husband.

We didn’t have time to mess around with Bart; we had a skunk to get rid of. One year, we tried catch and release with the skunks that we caught, but they always came back. They are a real nuisance and I am always afraid they may have rabies, so we killed the skunk. Yes, it is incredibly sad and goes against my stance on leaving nature to do its thing.

Bart was elusive for the rest of the evening, even after his brothers came in the house. In the morning, however, he was waiting to come in. My husband quickly discovered that he was limping and not putting any weight on one of his hind legs.

We examined him and discovered that his foot was swollen and very tender to the touch. We both were concerned that he may have been bitten by a snake, so I stayed home from work to take him to the vet.

In the hours before our appointment he became cuddly, which is unusual for him. I noticed that he was feeling warmer than normal, and I knew he was not feeling well.

The veterinarian was thorough in checking him over. His x-rays showed no broken bones. She shaved the hair off his foot to look for wounds; she found a single puncture wound. Her best guess was that it was a snake bite, just like we thought. She said that cats generally recover well from snake bites. She gave him an antibiotic injection and sent us on our way.

Bart was so pathetic that evening that I made him stay in the house after I made all the other cats go outside. He went to sleep in the rocking chair in my front room. That chair is the one piece of furniture that the cats are allowed on.

After being asleep for a couple of hours, I was awakened by my mother calling my phone and asking for assistance. I immediately got up and went to help her. I am actually not sure how long I was gone, but when I finally got back to bed I heard my husband snicker.

“What are you snickering about”, I asked. “Nothing (snicker, snicker)”, was his reply. “Is there a cat in the bed”, I asked. “Yeessss”, was his reply. Apparently, when I got up to help my mother, I woke up Bart. He went into our bedroom and jumped up on the bed.

My husband is a big softy, and of course, just let Bart get comfy. I knew that something like this might happen, but I wasn’t prepared to deal with it right then. My maternal instinct would not permit me to remove an injured and lonely baby kitty and place him in isolation.

To finish up this blog, let me just say that although neither my husband nor I got very much sleep that night, we let Bart spend Thursday night in our bed as well. By Friday morning Bart was starting to put a little weight on his foot, so he had to spend his nights outside again.

I get a feeling that this is a foreshadowing of cold winter nights to come when we let the cats sleep inside over night…

Matthew 5:7  God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.