My new friend, Denny Murawska, sent me an e-mail about a hunting buddy
of his, whom we will call "Bubba" to protect his identity and not
humiliate him in front of the web world. It seems that Bubba went
pheasant hunting last weekend, and his dog chased something down a hole
in the ground. Well, I'll let Denny finish the story...
He then stuck
his arm down the hole to "see what it was." Well, he was bitten on the
thumb. I asked him if it bled, and got a big affirmative. I advised him to get
rabies shots since he did not recover the culprit. He did, along with a tetanus
booster. Being a big fan of Jeff Foxworthy and Blue Collar Comedy, I just
pictured a new reality show where guys head out to the woods to stick their
hands in tree hollows, holes, etc. and try to guess what critter bit them. What
was he thinking? I laughed all day thinking about it!
PS....after talking with Bubba about his mishap, I
told him he might want to wipe that bit of foam from the corner of his mouth...
Hoo, boy! Bubba was flirting with danger there, eh?
Now tell me you've never done something as stupid as that! I'm
willing to wager most of us have. When I was about 12, I ran a
trapline along a couple local creeks for muskrats and in the vacant
fields behind my house for whatever I could catch. I set a trap
(No. 1 Victor longspring, basic 'rat trap) in a woodchuck hole,
thinking I might catch a rabbit, but knowing full well I might catch a
skunk. Well, you guessed it! I caught a skunk.
I got the bright idea I would take it to a vet, have it de-scented, and
turn it into a pet! So, I took an old wire mesh minnow trap out
to where the skunk was caught, got upwind and poked him a few times
with along stick until he sprayed himself out. Then I opened the
sliding door of the minnow trap and coaxed the skunk inside. Once
he was in the minnow trap, I slid the door most of the way shut and
gingerly stepped on the spring of the trap that had him by the hind
foot. He pulled his foot out, I slammed the door down, and I had
him!
So home we went, the skunk and I. When I got home, Mom could
smell what I had caught, even though I left the minnow trap out behind
the garage. (Moms are clever like that!) She insisted that
I take the skunk back out to where I had caught him and let him go.
Being a lazy kid, I decided to flip the trap over and over and "roll"
it out to the field instead of carrying it. Well, the minnow trap
was shaped like a box, about two feet long, maybe 15 inches wide and
six or eight inches high. When it was in its normal position, the
skunk could not lift his tail over his back, and so couldn't
spray. But when I flipped it, the 15-inch side momentarily became
the vertical dimension, which gave Stinky enough clearance to lift his
tail (which he of course did). In the half-hour or so since I had
poked him, he had regenerated enough musk to shoot again.
He sprayed me right in the face! I opened the trap door and ran
for the house, tearing my glasses off my face and rubbing my eyes as I
ran. I stumbled into the basement, turned on the washtub tap and
splashed water all over my face to get the sting out of my eyes.
When I could finally open my eyes, I saw viscous yellow drops all over
my glasses. I don't recall how I got the smell out of my hair and
clothes. Probably took a tomato juice bath! Stinky,
meanwhile, ran for the field and made good his escape, where he
probably toold all his buddies about how he splooshed the dumb kid who
set traps in woodchuck holes!
Stay tuned. Next time, I'll tell you about the bowhunter who pepper sprayed a great horned owl in self-defense!
later...
9:44:15 PM 
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