Rabies [it's over now]

The history of this briefly is: My sister Dede and her family (husband Jeff, three sons, a dog & a cat - and possibly still a canary but I'm not sure) live in a semi-rural area of New York state - the lots aren't large (theirs is about half an acre or maybe a bit more) but there's a lot of woods around them and a large reservoir nearby. My sister called me yesterday to say a skunk was wandering around her yard, moving erratically, spraying at nothing, and drooling. She had already called her vet, the sheriff, the local health department - no one knew what to do OR was unwilling to help OR was even answering the phone. A sheriff did come out to her place, but by the time he got there (an hour after the call) the skunk had gone underneath a shed attached to the house. The cop refused to even look under the shed, and said that unless the animal was out in the open he would not deal with it. (Sit, skunk. Stay! No, no, stay for an hour till the sheriff gets back here.)

Jeff looked under the shed as best he could, but without getting his face right up to the space (only about 6" of clearance) he couldn't see anything. He rolled a few M-80 firecrackers underneath - but apparently the skunk had moved away, because although they didn't see the skunk for the next few hours, they could smell spray coming from here and there around their property.

By evening the whole house smelled. Dede was worried that the skunk had gotten into the basement, but there was no way it could have. Finally they discovered the skunk under Dede's canoe - unless they have moved it from where she kept it when I last saw it, the canoe would be stored upside down on the house's large porch - this would explain the smell in the house!

I'm a little fuzzy about the chain of events at this point, since Dede started laughing as she told me the next sequence. It's late at this point - after midnight - and the skunk is out in the yard again. Jeff & their oldest son Trevor (will be 11 in August) decided to put the skunk out of its misery. It's having convulsions occasionally, then getting up and wandering a short distance, only to convulse again. Keep in mind that it's still spraying - hard to imagine a skunk having so much to spare that it can spray for hours.

So - Dede, downstairs, has the flashlight on the skunk, and upstairs the intrepid hunters are shooting through a window at the skunk - with a bow and arrows. Twenty arrows later the skunk is untouched - but there's a nice stockade around it. Unfortunately it's not a perfect stockade, so the skunk isn't trapped. Dede is going to leave her flashlite job but Jeff isn't done. The next weapon of choice is Trevor's slingshot. Jeff goes through almost all the ammo and does hit the skunk in the butt, which causes the beast to stagger but not drop. Jeff is undaunted. Moments pass, and suddenly Dede sees the guts of a 486 computer flying through the air - and it's a clean miss. Next follows the 486's case - and another spare one - and the skunk is still untouched. Dede is having a bit of difficulty holding the flashlight steady by now, especially when she sees a 1 lb. dumbbell hit the dirt near the skunk. The mate to that dumbbell was followed by various other weights - until finally at 7 lbs Jeff has actually managed to hit the skunk. 7 lbs of dead weight does the trick - the skunk is no longer moving. When Jeff goes out to investigate, the skunk is not actually dead - so he has to dispatch him with a shovel. The hunt is over.

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