Caught!

Tuesday morning I arrived at school a little early and was greeted with the unmistakable pungent aroma of eau de skunk. A little later (after the sun came up) someone spotted the critter as it ran under the building right by the entrance to the cafeteria. So, someone called Animal Control and they came and put out a live trap with some canned cat food by the building. We waited.

Yesterday morning I got there fairly early and saw that we had a raccoon in the live trap. I looked at the poor guy, and offered up an apology from the whole human race to him for his false imprisonment. He was let go, and the trap was set again.

This morning, I walked by the trap and saw that we had our suspect. A bit later Barney Fife from Animal Control gets there and I see him, our principal, and an assortment of our maintenance department's finest out in the area near the trap. Barney Fife decided he needed to throw a quilt over the cage and then attach a rope or chain or something to it and DRAG the cage so he wouldn't get sprayed.

Well, he didn't get sprayed, but I choked back laughter as I looked upon the scene -Barney Fife dragging a blanket-covered cage across the lawn, maintenances guys standing around watching (not much of a stretch from the norm), and our principal carrying one of those poles with the loop at the end like he was Jim from Wild Kingdom.

The skunk, however, did not think it was as funny as I did and he apparently released some sort of SuperSoaker projectile skunk scent as he was dragged, confined, across the ground. The smell hit an a/c unit and was subsequently sucked up into the ductwork and wafted through the vents of every room and hallway of the entire building, including the cafeteria.

If Bubba had been there I guess we could've have gotten a paintball gun and determined if the skunk was pregnant or not.