And It's Only 11:30 in the Morning

I am sitting at my computer in my "office", also known as the dining room. Mom is telling her friend Kate that the mouse turds they've just found are surely only a month old. They are clearing out the pantry so the window installers can get in there and, well, install windows. The window installers are in Mom's studio at the moment, putting new windows in there.

This morning, I bobbled in and out of sleep, being woken up every few moments by the stench of skunk. Somehow, the smell got stronger when I was asleep. We have a skunk living in our carriage house. And a possum, and a raccoon and some cats.

I joined my parents and Kate in the kitchen and we chatted about the skunk smell. A few days ago, we heard an owl hooting and what we were pretty sure was our bunny (did I mention we have a bunny living around the house somewhere?), crying because the owl had caught him. We wondered if the owl caught the skunk last night.

I looked out in the backyard and saw the skunk. A massive, size-of-a-cocker spaniel skunk, bobbling around the back yard. It almost had music to it as it swaggered. Back and forth, across the backyard between our house and our friends' the Walls'. I watched for a while and realized there was a second one! This one, not looking too good, was on the path between the two homes. The other skunk nudged the sick one.

Dad called the dog officer (apparently animal control is always on vacation). He would be over as soon as his doctor's appointment was over. So the four of us crowded on the back stoop and watched these two skunks, scrambling only a bit when the healthy one appeared to be headed our way.

There was a knock at the door and standing there were two guys - the window installers. At first we thought they were here to deal with the animals. But, no, they were here to deal with the windows that they woulnd't be able to get to because Mom's studio has lots of stuff in it. Dad scrambled to clear the space for them. Meanwhile, I'm taking pictures of sick skunk and healthy skunk, while healthy skunk tried to move sick skunk and sick skunk lay there dying.

After eating a quick lunch, the dog officer showed up and picked-up the now dead skunk. The healthy one is fine, he said.

So, Dad headed off to an appointment and Mom and Kate started on the back pantry and I hauled Oliver to the second floor tub for a much needed bath. His eye is having problems again and we are vet-bound this afternoon. I washed his whole body before I got to his head...which were covered with ticks! I immediately hollered for my daddy. Who was gone. So, I removed about five from his head, a few leaving some bloody spots. Poor thing.

Last week-end, when I went to the wedding, my parents took the dogs to the cape. Before they left, I mentioned to them that I had just given Oliver flea and tick treatment. I guess I should have made a bigger deal out of it because the pups were so excited that they went straight into the ocean the minute they arrived. Then, they picked-up lots of ticks.

I let the water out for the tub to focus on the tick situation. It was then that Mom hollered up...the water from the tub was causing a flood in the butler's pantry. I finished bathing Oliver elsewhere then went to Bootsie, who was staying in dad's office on the second floor, to keep her protected from all the other chaos of the morning.

I took her out to the side yard but she was too freaked out to do anything because of the tools the window installers had there. Meanwhile, the guys doing the windows are laughing because they've never seen bigger windows. Ever. One up stood in the empty frame of the window, holding up the huge counter-weight he'd just removed and held it up like a fish while the other took his picture.

I tried taking Bootsie to the backyard, but then I was so paranoid about healthy skunk coming back that I lurked around like the KGB was after me. Bootsie was disinterested in doing anything in the backyard, either.

Sta tuned...