Litter & Critters

While going in to work a bit early (about noon-ish) I saw something white moving back and forth on the road about a half a mile ahead of me. I was surprised when I closed in on the mystery creature making circles on the country road ahead. It was a half-grown skunk who needed rescuing. It seems that someone had finished eating their yogurt and had tossed the container along the side of the road. Well, the young skunk, trying to get the last bit of the tasty treat out of this container, found out that it had made a serious (possibly deadly) blunder, it’s head was stuck quite fast.

BDA to the rescue! Do you I could drive by and not attempt to help the poor thing? You’re right. It took a while for me to figure out just how I was going to do this task without it thanking me the wrong way. Then it came to me; if I opened the door (holding it open with my left foot) and put my car in the path of the the little stinker I just might be able to grab the yogurt container. So, with one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear-shift (thank goodness I have an automatic transmission) I was able to do it on the second attempt.

The moment I grabbed the cup the skunk froze (and I held my breath) I shifted in to drive and grabbed the wheel with my right hand. I pulled up on the cup and lifted the little varmit off the ground. It was really stuck fast. Still holding my breath I shook it up and down. Skunks have very big claws, by the way, but it wasn’t able to see where to use these weapons so it just held them out and flailed in the air. On the fifth or sixth shake it dropped to the ground, and like a rocket I was gone. I saw it run into a soybean field as I made my exit. About a quarter of a mile later I stopped and smashed the cup with my foot then backed over it with the car.

So, I got the satisfaction of helping one of God’s creature’s out of a man-made sitution and had a funny story to amuse my co-workers to boot. By the way, some of them told me they would have either drove by and left it or ran over it. Good thing for the skunk I am not one of them, and good thing for me it thanked me the right way by just running away, much to my relief.

~ by betterdazeahead on August 17, 2007.