Just wanted to sdhare our experiences with skunks -- and ferret matter!
The shelter is on the first floor and there is a rear exit into an enclosed
garage.  It is an older building to the garage door is on a slider-- in
winter ice builds up, and lo and behold critters can shove into the cement
slab garage-- where the refuse for the shelter is in metal trash cans.  The
first year or so we continually found the garage in an upheaval-- bags of
waste torn apart-- strewn everywhere.  Hubby and shelter Dad blamed the
neighbors cats-- I said it was something other than the cats-- after 5
months I actuy saw the culprit.  One night as I was coming in from a meeting
I say a big white feline?  with a black stripe waddling up the stairs to the
porch.  As I neared I realized this was no ferline-- so I backtracked to get
out of the way.
 
This bobbing and waddling creature was so very fat -- that after climbing up
four stairs it actually rolled back down.  I thought it would explode---
later in the shelter I heard the rattling of the trash barrel-- yep-- you
bet-- post consumer waste was it's prey-- so I think that as a deterrent,
it wouuld be more like a dinner invitation!
 
Just my thoughts-- I wonder where that critter rolled anyway!
 
alicia
a shelter Mom
[Posted in FML issue 2272]