skunk

I don't know if I've ever shared about the wildlife in our yard on here.  We live on a main road in what are essentially the suburbs of NYC.  So you'd think there wouldn't be lots of wildlife around.  Wrong.

Spring has most definitely sprung here in Nueva York. And so have the animals.

Our (tiny, itsy bitsy postage stamp) yard is like a freakin disney movie.  We regularly see:

- chipmunks
- a gazillion birds
- squirrels, brown
- squirrels, black
- bunnies
- skunks
- groundhog (used to live under our fence.  RIP, dead on the aforementioned main road)
- deer
- raccoons

So basically think of this,

source

Except that all these creatures poop everywhere and eat my plants.  They do other things too.  One of which we just experienced.

Mr. Snoop and I were startled awake early this moring by the sounds of loud screeching and squealing.  It sounded bad, y'all.  Our cats have been known to wrestle on our bed in the wee hours, but this was clearly not them.  Mr. Snoop did a quick assesment and found that the ruckus was coming from outside. 

Fast forward two hours later when we wake up and were flattened by the overpowering stench of skunk.  It was unreal.  Granted, our house is one large room plus a bedroom consisting of a grand total of about 500 square feet, but the whole place REEKED.  I've smelled some skunk in my day, including outside our house, but nothing like this.

Even my cheerios tasted like skunk, y'all.

I had to go to a doctor's appointment first thing.  I was paranoid that I smelled like skunk.  So I apologized to the receptionists.  They sniffed me.  I was right. 

Then I got back in my car and it smelled like skunk.

Now I'm pretty sure my office smells like skunk.

Any animal experts out there who can explain this?  Were they mating?  I really hope not, because it sounded, um, violent.  Fighting over a mate?

More importantly, how can I make them go a-freaking-way?