[Zeke]

Screaming because of a critter?

Anyway, I had a baby skunk that somehow lost it's mother. Sort of hard to verify but no mother ever came poking around looking for her offspring. I and the in-laws raised it into an adult when we decided that it was a bit much for a small urban yard, so we had some friends (and friends of animals) up in Santa Rosa adopt "Shalimar."

It lived in or near the chicken coup until one day it wandered off to the woods. Every day the skunk would come back into the compound for a fresh egg. He/she liked to take the egg and place if between the front paws and 'hike' it backwards into any object that would break the shell. Then it was feast time — egg all over the face.

Eventually the skunk came by less and less until sightings became rare. I guess it assimilated to life in the wild in spite of its raising by humans. All this and it never sprayed anyone. We didn't handle it but it was super friendly and not afraid of humans (well familiar ones anyway) and would approach us and hang out for awhile. That is until egg time.