In Broad Daylight

L runs inside, slams the door, stops in front of it in his action stance and exclaims, "They-uhs a skunk!" several times, getting J and me all riled up.

Sure enough, they is a skunk right outside our side door, terrorizing the dogs who are digging furiously under the fence.

I call Hots to find out where my bb gun is.  (We're in a neighborhood-The country club-so blasting it isn't really an option...at least during daylight hours.)

J jumps around informing me, "Skunks can spray 10 feet!  And it lasts for months!"  

I located my old bb gun and we headed out the front door and around the side to find it heading home.

My marksmanship was lacking-I'll have to brush up on that-so it escaped under the fence having been pegged only once.  Next time I'll be ready!

It has sprayed Missy twice this week.

After the dust had settled I interviewed our resident skunk expert, J.  Here's what he had to say about them:
-There are two types of skunks; one is a spotted skunk and one is a striped skunk.
-One climbs and one digs.
-You have to have tomato juice to get the smell off.
-Looks like we have a striped digging skunk!
And he knows this because "they told us that on Wild Kratts."

L contributed this, "I don't know anything 'cept this.  If I'm going outside to pway wif something and I see something digging and it might be a skunk or it might not but if I smell something that smells kind of stinky then I know it's a skunk and that's all I know.  That's all I'm gonna tell you."