As I mentioned in a previous entry, we had an uninvited house guest our first week living in the new house. Beans was in the basement when she heard what sounded like frantic scratching on the basement window. The window is covered from the outside making it impossible to see whatever is on the other side of it.  So Beans went exploring.

That's when she discovered Percy, our houseguest.

Percy Titters is a baby skunk that fell into the window well of the basement window because the previous owners of this house did not have a window well covering over the said window well. Which means anything can fall down there and we're stuck with the result because we didn't think to check for window well covers before we moved in. Silly us.

I thought the first thing to do when Beans discovered we had a skunk, which at first she mistook for a humongous super-skunk, was to name it. If we're going to have a house guest, I think it should have a name; it became Percy Titters.

The first thing Beans did, after a few moments of panic were over of course, was to call Animal Control. The woman at AC suggested Beans try to lure the skunk out of the window well. And just how, pray tell, does one LURE a skunk anywhere? I offered to show some leg, or if push came to shove (so long as shoving didn't involve sharing space with Percy), I said I'd flash some cleavage. Beans noted, and rightly so, that my cleavage probably wouldn't do a thing for Percy. So she let her fingers do the walking in the Yellow Pages because now she was afraid to let her feet go outside just in case Percy would get spooked and spray. We REALLY wanted to avoid a skunk spray if at all possible.

The first person Beans called said he might come out to get Percy, but Percy would more than likely leave our place dead, and Percy definitely would spray. Wonderful. Beans didn't like the idea of becoming a skunk killer. And even though I'm conservative which supposedly means I hate all living things except people (and even then it's on a case by case basis), I wasn't crazy about becoming a skunk murderer either.

So Beans called someone else.

The next guy on the list was more hopeful. He said if he came, he'd bring a contraption that Percy could use as a kind of ladder enabling Percy to walk right out of the window well all by himself. No muss, no fuss, no death, no spray. Sounded like a plan to us.

When this guy showed up and saw Percy he said Percy was a 5 month old baby skunk. By then we'd gotten a better look at Percy's cute little skunk face and thought Percy was an adorable critter who did not deserve to die.  The Animal Guy put his contraption into the window well and said he'd come back the next day to pick it up. By then, he said, Percy would be gone.

Which may have happened if Percy were not a 5 month old mentally challenged baby skunk. Percy didn't know he was supposed to use the contraption to get out of the window well. Instead, Percy used the ladder to hide under and sleep.  Occasionally Percy poked his little head out to look around and scratch some more on the side of the window well and the basement window, but Percy never made a move to pack up and move out.

By the next evening Percy had gone without food or water for a whole day, but he still seemed in no hurry to go anywhere. So the Animal Guy came back and somehow, without disturbing or otherwise frightening Percy, put a trap into the window well. It took Percy a very long time to finally wander into the trap. And believe me there wasn't much room at all to wander, but Percy finally did the right thing and allowed himself to be saved. The Animal Guy came back to get Percy and took him off to a much better place where he could eat and drink and meander in far better and more spacious surroundings.

Meanwhile Beans went and got a window well cover, so even though Percy was just cute as a bug, he won't be staying for anymore sleep-overs if we have anything to say about it. Thus ended the skunk saga. Just in time for the Wasp saga to begin.