No…it is not what you are thinking 🙂

Yesterday morning my wife and I were getting ready for our workouts.  She uses our elliptical trainer that’s in the basement and I go for a run along the river trail in town.  As I was getting ready my wife yelled for me to come into the kitchen.  As I arrived to see what the problem was she pointed out the window toward the church and said "look!".  There, by the rain gutter that drains into the tile, were a pair of young skunks wrestling and frolicking in the grass.  I had smelled skunks around the house before but had not seen them – until yesterday.  We stood in the kitchen watched them play and wrestle.  Then they would stop and run down into the underground drain that goes into the tile.  A minute or so later they would re-emerge and continue their frolicking.  It was quite a scene.  I then snuck outside and got close enough for a couple pictures.  They were really cute…

…but of course they cannot stay…

…so when I got to my HOT and HUMID office I called the police and relayed my problem to them.  They told me that I could come and get a live trap and when I catch them I could call them back.  The police then would come and "dispose" of the skunks and then take them out into the country.  I did not like the term "dispose" because I knew what he meant.  The officer did warn me that if they were to "dispose" of our cute, uninvited guests that it would smell for quite awhile.  I did not like that either.  So I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Cue my brilliant idea…

…I stuck a hose down the drain tile and turned on the water.  I figured this would flush them out.  When I returned from turning the water on a skunk was fighting its way past the hose to get out.  Of course I kept my distance and let him/her get out.  Only one came out so followed the "drowned rat".  I "chased" our cute little friend around the church (once again…keeping my distance).  It turned a corner and then I lost it.  I am not sure where it went.  I did hear some rustling in the street storm sewer so maybe it went down there.  Either way…our cute little "drowned rat" is gone…for the time being at least.

After the exciting events in the high humidity (I am dripping with sweat by now) my custodian and I placed a wire mesh down the drain tile to prevent our little visitors from entering it again.  We’ll see if this works.  The rest of my day was spent dealing with the heat in my un-air conditioned office (I did not get out to do visits…I guess the heat index zapped me of all my energy — except for the energy I had chasing a skunk around the building).  I still laugh when I think about that.

Even though I did not get anything really constructive done today I believe I did save one life.  It my not have been a contributing member of this congregation but one more of God’s creatures is alive when I had a chance to kill it.  Of course this attitude may change if they come back and create a nuisance, but for the time being, I feel pretty good about myself…

…but…part of me DOES hope our cute little friends do return to frolick in the grass again because there’s not enough frolicking done in this world.

-edh-