Of Dead Skunks, Live Birds and Determined Squirrels

I am actually going to blend two topics together here, so try to bear with me for a bit. I guess that this piece could actually fit into a couple of different topics – animals, or perhaps just senses. Let me explain.

When I came home from work one day this evening, my keenly developed sense of smell (add a smile with rolling eyes here) told me that the area around my front door smelled a bit like a skunk. Not a gross, over-powering smell of skunk, but skunk nonetheless. Maybe the kind of odor you would smell if a skunk had been hit by a car about three-quarters of a mile away or something. But, since the smell was not terribly offending, I sort of put it out of my mind and went on with my evening. However, later that night, when I took out some additional items for recycling, I smelled the odor again. But now, I decided it was not a skunk at all, but probably more likely a gas leak.

Faced with a possible gas leak, I decided I had two very broad, high-level options. I could call the gas company, or I could not call them. Taking the path of least resistance, I decided I would not call. That left it up to me to decide if I should try to decide if I had a gas leak or not. I figured if there were a gas leak, then I would either die in my sleep or get blown to bits if the house exploded. At the time, the thought of dying did not bother me so much as losing sleep over worrying what might happen. So, I decided to test for a possible leak the only way I knew how – I lit a candle lighter. I figured if I’m going to die, let’s get it over with.

I lit the lighter and – nothing. Deciding that if the “leak” got worse my cats would notice and wake me in the night, I again buried my head deeply in the sand and went to bed.

The next morning I had forgotten all about the smell and went off to work. But, when I came home, the smell was back, and it seemed to be getting stronger. I took a look around and quickly discovered that the smell was not a gas leak, but, in fact, a skunk that decided to curl up and die in the bushes near my front porch. I did not pay real close attention to the carcass when disposing of it, but there were no obvious signs of trauma, so I am not sure what did in the poor critter. But, that was one mystery solved.

Now, on a happier note, I can report that my attempt to feed the neighborhood birds has met with much success. Why would I do that? You know, birds tend to do quite well in the summer without our assistance. Yes, I know that, but, amazingly, I do not always do the right thing. Here is how it came about.

As you know, I have been feeding at least one cat and at least one opossum and who knows what else. Well, when I put the cat food out early in the evening, a pair of cardinals always swoops down to try to feed. Cardinals are kind of cool in that it is easy to tell the males and females apart and in that they seem to mate for extended periods, at least, and frequently appear together, working in tandem to eat and eventually to raise their young. So, unlike the St. Louis Cardinals or the Louisville Cardinals, real cardinals are really pretty neat.

But, neat as they may be, they are unable to eat cat food. The pieces are just too big for their little beaks and mouths, and it was kind of sad to watch the fruitless efforts. And, since I had a metal clothes-line pole in my back yard that was not being used for anything else, I decided to hang a couple of bird feeders. I put suet in the feeder on one end of the pole and hung a classic seed bell from the other.

It took only a day or so for the entire neighborhood to discover the free meals available in my yard. The next morning I saw both cardinals and blue jays and that evening they were joined by the ever-present starlings as well as some birds I did not recognize. One in particular was very attractive. It seemed to be mostly white with a black streak down its back – maybe kind of negative view of a flying skunk.

I also thought it was a good idea to hang these feeders from the metal pole because that would keep the food safe from squirrels. I reasoned that since they were already eating some of my apple cores, they could let the birds have the suet and the seed. Wrong!! The little rascals managed to climb the metal pole, walk across the metal bar, and bend down from above to get at the seed bell. Squirrels are probably among the most determined eaters in the animal kingdom. If there is food around, they will find a way to get at it.

So, I should probably find a nice way to wrap up this post, but I cannot think of any. So, in the immortal words of Porky Pig – Tha … tha… that’s all, folks!