Close encounters of the skunk kind

While Riverdale is not the concrete jungle of Manhattan, we are becoming less and less suburban with all the new high-density construction. Excluding birds and squirrels that are ubiquitous and the occasional cat, mouse and even rat, I am amazed at the number of animal species we can still spot here. This is probably due to the large number of parks here, particularly Riverdale Park. While the deer have not yet made their way this far south, as far as I know, we have the less commonly seen chipmunks, opossums, skunks, raccoons and even snakes. People have even reported coyotes, although I have never had the pleasure.

The opossum presence was a real surprise. We were having company and one of the children was standing near a glass door looking out onto the garden. All of a sudden there was a shout: “An opossum! An opossum!” Personally, I thought the child must have simply caught a glimpse of something furry, and imagination took over from there. 

Much to my surprise, there was a whitish, furry animal with smooth, rat-like tail that was unmistakably an opossum. What I was less prepared for was the full mouth of sharp, little teeth. Despite strong similarities to rodents, opossums are marsupials; females have a pouch in which fetal development  partially occurs. I have a policy of never arguing with any animal possessing sharp teeth or claws — which covers just about everything that I am likely to encounter. However, I would still love to see someday the iconic image of baby joeys — the generic name for marsupial babies — draped across their mother’s back as she goes about her business.

While it is rare to see skunks, unfortunately, one smells them frequently here.  As the joke goes, “Where does a skunk go when it encounters a person? Anywhere it wants!” Years ago, I was in the country when a skunk went off one evening about 50 feet away from where we were staying. The smell was so bad that no one in the vicinity could sleep for nights afterwards. 

Back in Riverdale, with the advent of warmer spring weather, I began smelling skunks and even caught a glimpse of one rounding a house in my neighborhood. Fear lingers from the events of last summer.

I awoke one Saturday morning and the scent of skunk in the front of the house was quite strong. As I went down the driveway to collect my paper, it became stronger and stronger and I noticed a furry mound squashed on the pavement of the street. I took my paper and went back inside and tried to ignore the smell. Unfortunately, that is never possible with skunk scent. 

Eventually, I could not deal with it any longer and using latex gloves and a heavy garbage bag, went out and bagged the corpse. Being that close to the animal I also discovered that smell and taste get confused in the back of your throat when confronted by such a pungent and obnoxious odor. 

The old antidote recommended for counteracting skunk odor was tomato juice. Having none that day, I hoped that the useful ingredient was the mild acid in tomato juice. What I did have at home was lemon juice, so I poured an entire bottle on the mucky stain in the hope that would do the job. No luck. Afterwards, I checked on the Internet and found several sites that recommended a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda with a dash of dishwashing liquid.  

Since we get garbage pickup Mondays, I called the Sanitation Department to see if they have special pick-up requirements for dead skunks. They said, “No, lady. This happens all the time. Just leave it with the regular trash.”

I have always had enormous respect for the unappreciated role our sanitation men play in making our life more enjoyable. This willingness to handle something so physically repugnant only adds to my admiration.

And would you believe, the exact same thing happened several weeks later. While dealing with it yet again, was no pleasure, but at least I had a routine and took care of it immediately. Unfortunately, I still had not laid in a supply of hydrogen peroxide. I had better take care of it soon, before another skunk crosses our road against an oncoming car.