Raccoons, Gophers and Skunks, Oh My!

Mr. Stinky

When we moved back to the LA coast from Arizona, we thought we left all the wild critters in the desert. Not so much. Before we ever moved into our new "this old house" here in SoCal, we had raccoons casing the joint. They eventually left once we moved in and started cleaning up the backyard and eliminating any hiding places. Then came the gophers. Boy, what a nuisance! Took us almost 6 months to finally get rid of the last one and we still have to put out castor oil pellets as a deterrent.

Just when we thought we could finally have a critter-free home, in came Mr. Stinky, aka determined skunk. He burrowed beneath the crawl space screen that was protecting (not so much, right?) the opening  and made a nice little home beneath ours. Faint scent of skunk would find us in the yard. We didn't pay that much attention to it at first because skunks are so common here and are always getting hit by cars or spraying neighborhood dogs. Then we saw it. Yikes! Evicting his stinky butt took three nights of diligent watch and resealing the crawl space opening until he finally couldn't get through the barrier.

We breathed a sigh of relief that he was finally gone. Then someone mentioned he might be a she and there might be babies under the house. Aaaahhhhh! So, now I have to talk my husband out of going under the house himself to check. What is it with guys? Okay, forget what hubby wants. Animal control says to hire a licensed trapper so I'm going to call them. Here's hoping there are no more members of the Stinky family under the house. Sheesh!