[Tim Hancock]

We have them come up to the patio all the time in the spring to eat our cat's food.

Standard procedure when skunk is at back sliding door:

Go out front door with flashlight equipped 12 ga and walk around side of house towards back porch.

Wave flashlight beam on tree behind house thus signaling wife in house to start tapping on sliding door to gently alert skunk to her presence.

As skunk departs wood decked porch, yell at skunk/stomp feet/throw pebbles etc to hopefully get skunk turned out into the yard.

If succesful turning skunk into yard, carefully "herd" it towards road with yelling and stomping being careful to not get too close. (If unsuccesful, carefullt chase skunk around house being careful to not get too violent to avoid having skunk go into afull spray mode.... sometimes it can take 1/2 hour of following around the house and bushes till the little bast@rd can be turned into the yard!)

Once skunk makes it to the road heading for the ditch on opposite side, take up a firing position on one knee at edge of road and blast the little b@stard in the @ss just as he starts down the edge of the road into the ditch. 50% of the time, the blast will knock the little b@stard into the ditch and the current will get rid of him withou having to toss him in with a shovel.

IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE D@MN sure the little bastage is DEAD, (I usually blast him a couple more times for good measure) as I once made the mistake of not finishing one off and it ended up crawling under the neighbors porch to die...... This is not good ... trust me.