Preserving a Fox Sette

Had a skunk filled weekend here in Colorado. My neighbor called me to complain that some skunks had moved into a fox sette under her garage and wanted to know if I could trap them for her. Well she is a 70 YO widow and I wanted to help. Since the vixens are all most likely preggers by now I wanted to save this nice spot for them as they used it last year to whelp their kitts. Her garage was smelling very bad when I went over there. Set a large box trap the first night using some old meatballs for bait. Nothing the first night. Figured the skunk did not like Italian. Left the trap and the second night got one of them. Was not sure how to manage this black and white critter in a large coon sized box trap, so I called upon my excellent long range shooting skills with a .22 rifle at 50' and shot him in the head. He fell like a rock but not before he sprayed a good dose of green/yellow spray and made a big 6' spot in the snow. Skunk spray all over the damn place. I went home stinking to high heaven. A friend of mine that has done some trapping said to set a smaller box trap in a trash can and that way they won't see you walk up on them and you can put the lid on it and fill it with water. That way they won't spray. Well I went right ahead and set one of the double door Havahart traps in a trash can. The next morning I checked it and sure enough there was another skunk. Well I went to tip the trash can up and neglected to notice that the trap was about 3" longer than the trash can. The minute I tipped it upright the darn skunk sprayed. Could not get the lid on the can and things got real stinky right off. Stuck a hose in the can and when the water started to fill the panicked skunk sprayed again. Things were really smelling bad now. With this fine Havahart trap on end, I failed to notice that the bail that holds the door closed had lifted off the trap door and now the skunk was climbing out the now open door. I taped the door closed and back in the water it went. Not discouraged by my tap on the door, it made it's way back out again and this time I tapped it in the head with a piece of steel flat bar that was laying on the ground. It fell into the water and showed me that skunks can spray even under water. A big oil slick came to the surface and the minute it hit air, seemed to atomize and this is now the third time this critter sprayed me. Did I mention that the temps were at about 20 degrees F and the wind was blowing 35 to 40 mph Just to make my morning more pleasant? Am sure the last love tap dispatched the skunk. I put a log on top of the trap and left it to turn into a large ice cube. Will deal with it later today. My wife would not let me in the house. Had to shed the skunky clothes in the garage and run to the house and shower in this fine weather in my shorts.

An update as of 3/11/2008 Have set this trap 9 times and have caught 8 skunks. All but 1 are males, some of which have serious telltale signs of fighting for territories and females.