What an adventure!

When I catch a Flower it gets lead poisoning. Too many chickens have seen their end from the stinky little black and whites. The dog has been sprayed 3 times and I have had a direct hit once so trying to figure out how to get them out is not going to happen. I feel bad because they are really pretty but so were my dead chickens.
 
I don't have chickens at home, so that wasn't a concern.

Now that I had come to the conclusion that I needed to get that door opened, I had another dilemma, basically how I was going to get it opened. The obvious answer would be to just open it. But like I said, it was on the other side of the trap. There was no easy way to get to it, and if I had fought my way thru the raspberries and poke, I had no place to hide if Flower got upset. Plus, that door catches and can be very difficult to open.

First thing I tried was to just reach around and open it. But Flower started to go nuts. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to get out, or get into position to spray, so I stopped. Next I tried a step in post, but it wasn't made right. Then, I tried a garden rake. I was able to do better w/that, but still wasn't able to get the door opened. It was just too big.

I thought about waiting for dark in the hopes that Flower wouldn't be able to see what I was doing. I quickly rejected that idea. After all, skunks are nocturnal, and his eyesight is better than mine at night. I had to do something, but what. Then, what seemed to be the perfect solution dawned on me, and I raced off to get what I needed.

To be continued....
 
While I was trying to get Flower out of the cage, hubby was using his smoker. And that made me think of fire, which made me think of the fireplace poker. I was almost positive that I could use that to reach thru the cage and open the door enough for Flower to get out. So, I went in the basement, grabbed it and went back out.

Once outside, I took up my position behind the greenhouse again. Then, I was able to reach in and try to hook the door. It took me a couple of tries B4 I was able to figure out how best to use it. In the meantime, Flower was getting excited, and kept trying to get out the one corner. I wasn't worried about getting sprayed since I could see that Flower had just one thing on his mind-freedom.

I finally was able to find the right position and managed to get the door partially opened. I didn't think it was opened enough, but Flower did. He managed to squeeze himself thru! He was free! But, I don't know if he was disoriented, was wanting to thank me, or what. But, rather than heading back the way he came, he turned around and started running towards me! I dropped the poker, so the door shut on the trap and I ran! Having managed to not get sprayed up to this point, I was taking no chances. I checked back later, and he was gone.

I've reset the trap, but this time when I set it up, I positioned it a bit differently. Any animal wanting to get to my garden still would be going in the trap. But at least if I catch another skunk, I should be able to get to the trap easier so I can cover it, then move it.
 
I don't know much first hand about skunks, and I am not sure how P.C. we need to be on this list, but ground hogs are good eating. My relatives ate them quite a bit during the great depression (which has still not ended in the mountains of Eastern Alabama). ;)
Lawana
 
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