Thursday, November 29, 2007

It's A Boy!

We are excited to announce the latest addition to the Wilson family...a skunk.

As you likely already know from our previous posts we recently built a new home. We closed on the home in early November.

We (Dionne and Tom) slept in our new home the first night excited to have a brand new home. All was well. But on night two we heard sounds. Neither of us knew what it was. So Tom went outside armed with a broom ready to take on whatever disturbed the peace. But, alas, nothing was found. So we can came to the conclusion that it must be mice.

The next day we called the builder who sent out a pest control company. Scott, the pest control guy, brought some mice/rate bait and put it in the variouos attic spaces. A few days past and the sounds continued. Tom checked the baits, but nothing had eaten them. And in the mean time the scratching noises had moved from the ceiling over the master bedroom down to the area around the master bedroom bath tub.

When Scott came back over and looked at the area under the master bathtub it was realized that the varmint was larger than a mouse or rate. Based on the claw marks Scott said it could be a possum, racoon, or a skunk, but he predicted that it would be a skunk. So Scott went a purchased a cage, some sardines, and put the cage in our master bathroom with the warning to keep the door closes and don't mess with what is captured especially if it is a skunk.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a competition, each person in the Wilson household chose what animal they thought it would be and what time it would be caught. But we caught nothing. So about a week later Scott came back and put the cage in the attic. The first night we heard our tenant scratching and banging around but he didn't take the bait. But on night two, we caught him! Tom was so excited he was giddy as a kid on Christmas. But Dionne wouldn't let him go look. So he waited until morning upon which he found our unwelcomed tenant in the trap.

So Scott came by the house with his son James and get the trap out of the attic. This was no small undertaking as he had to get a large plastic bag around the cage without getting sprayed. But God was good and the skunk was well behaved. No spray, no smell whatsoever.

So off to the woods we went to release the skunk. Scott loaded the cage on the back of his truck. And then released him.