Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
Be prepared. These ingredients just might be needed soon.
SKUNK DEODORIZER
1 bottle of hydrogen peroxide;
1 teaspoon of dish soap;
1 cup of baking soda.
When needed, mix and pour or spray foaming liquid onto affected pet or human. Let it sit about 5 minutes, rubbing with gloved hand. Rinse out. If need be, repeat.
Some near Maple Drive and Live Oak Drive know the recent skunk odor on a more intense level than others. Melissa Garraway opened her vented-to-the-outside dryer one day and skunk odor pounced into their house. The Pattersons’ dog got sprayed one day last week.
A Hays County Animal Control officer attempted to locate a mostly white skunk RonTom noticed in the Kiernan’s yard one morning, to no avail. He suggests sprinkling a few moth balls to keep the skunk(s) away. Unfortunately, it’d take a lot of moth balls to protect Mountain City; and, moth balls contain hazardous chemicals.
According to E-How, “Skunks are actually beneficial to your lawn and garden area. They feed on cutworms, mice, rats, grubs, yellow jackets, roaches, beetles and many other pests.” Other sources add “scorpions”. (We urgently called our pest control service when three scorpions crawled into our bedroom the week before our grandsons arrived for a week of “Camp NeeNee y Poppa.”
On Monday morning, Hays County Animal Control (responsible for Mountain City through an interlocal agreement) relocated our Trapped Raccoon #3. Three in a week. This should cut down on damage to bird feeders and squirrel feeders over our way. He takes them over 5 miles away (so they don’t come right back) but less than 10 miles away (the maximum distance allowed by law).
BoD and Kiss’Me’ wrangled with a raccoon in our “safe” small chained-in space off our back deck one night last week. Each of them cost us $100-plus at the vet.
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Trudy Hayter tidbitted, “Your column for June 8 was timely. Before we got the paper that morning Laverne McClendon called advising us of a fawn that was stuck between our fence and the school fence at the back of our property. While rescuing the fawn from its entrapment we had many other deer carefully and nervously watching. Judging from their snorting there were several that were not happy to have a human getting that close and personal with the baby. We were glad that there was a good fence between us and them. The fawn was quickly freed and we were glad to see it united with its herd. Thanks to Laverne for spotting this little trapped fawn and letting us quickly know so it could be rescued.”
And, Betty Puckett wrote, “We killed a coral snake in the back yard. Also killed a big rat snake that had wound himself around my cactus tree on the patio. ‘Figured that’s why the cardinal’s nest was empty of its babies. Jay killed a 3-foot rat snake by one of the back flower beds. I watch where I walk...”
Yes, watch where you walk. Protect your pets from wildlife. Seems we’re still a little city out in the country.
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Please send tidbits, both mild and wild. Email [email protected]; text (512) 517-5678 (now that an AT&T microcell gives us service inside our Mountain City home); or, phone (512) 268-5678.
