We are only two days into this work week and already I have worked 20 hours. I am now eyebrow-deep in our quarterly busy season that is “recon” – reconciling investment accounts so that we can send out quarterly statements. I started work at 7:00 this morning so by about 3:00 this afternoon my brain was feeling fried and I was starting to slow down when Chris says to me, “We have a dead skunk in the backyard.” Wait a minute – what? A dead skunk?
Now, I have a very healthy respect for skunks and the havoc they can cause in our lives. I had a student once whose home was compromised by skunk stink (dog got sprayed and then came in and rolled all over the place). That poor boy’s family tried and tried to eradicate the stink but it held fast. The few times I have seen a skunk when out walking early in the morning, I have turned and run in the opposite direction faster than I have ever run before or since. So, although a dead skunk doesn’t pose the problem of being able to actively spray a person, there is no way I wanted to go anywhere near one of the species, dead or alive.
We half-heartedly googled how to get rid of it ourselves, called the local animal control officials who didn’t help much, and then decided to enlist the services of a professional. We called a guy who would charge $100 (a small price to pay, I thought!) to remove all traces of the skunk from our property. Only catch was, he couldn’t come until tomorrow.
Having not taken a lunch hour today, I felt free to spread the news of our dead skunk far and wide via text. It did occur to me that the fact that a dead skunk was such big news reflected poorly on the level of excitement currently in my life. My favorite exchange was with Sam (who is presently at his dad’s house):
About 45 minutes later, Sam’s dad called to say that he would get rid of the skunk for us and wouldn’t charge a penny. As I was talking to him I walked over to the glass patio doors and saw this:
Stop the presses!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A vulture had somehow smelled this tender morsel and was having a very nice little meal. I’ve since learned that turkey vultures can smell a potential meal up to a mile away (tucking that away for my next stint on Jeopardy). He flew away for a bit, then came back to work on it some more. At present he is gone, but I’m hoping he’ll get hungry later. Meantime, we are cancelling on the guy who was going to come take care of it for us. Cha-ching! One hundred bucks now burning a hole in my pocket!
And how was YOUR day? 🙂
xoxo
Keep that bird away from OUR house!