A skunk's best friend

"MOM! DAD! Guess what I saw under our house? I could hardly believe it when I saw them!" Mom and Dad were reading the Sunday paper. My little brother was reading the comics.

"A green monster?" Mom didn't even look up.

"Purple People Eater?" Dad mumbled.

Jeremy just kept reading.

"Nothing that boring," I said. "At first, I thought they were cats. They were so cute. They were skunks."

Everyone looked up in shock.

"Skunks!" Mom wrinkled her nose. "Pew! I'll call animal control."

"Mom! They looked so pretty and stylish with their little dainty feet and their fluffy white-striped tails." I was worried that Mom and Dad might want to do something to them.

"I don't care if they wear tuxedos, Brianna," Dad said. "They stink and I've heard they carry rabies."

"Dad, I'll bet they have been there awhile and I haven't smelled anything."

"Let's catch one for a stinky pet!" Jeremy laughed.

Dad straightened his newspaper with a loud crack like an exclamation mark.

"You have a kind heart, honey, but our house is off-limits!"

"Dad, let me find out more about them. We don't want to scare them or they really might stink things up."

On Monday afternoon I called the Humane Society and found out a lot about skunks. I said, "Mom, the animal control people don't catch animals but will rent a cage to catch them."

"So that's what we'll do!" she said sharply.

"And skunks don't spray stinky stuff unless threatened. If we leave them alone they won't feel threatened."

"Well," Mom was weakening. "Your father is set against it."

When Dad came home I ran to him. "Dad, the Humane Society says that they don't carry rabies any more than any other wild animal. Besides," I added, "They are so cute!"

Dad started putting on his gardening gloves and reached for some poison snail pellets. He frowned at me. "I don't care if they do charity work at the hospital. No skunks!"

"But the lady said we should learn to live with animals because we are using up their wild space. She said they can even be helpful."

"Helpful?" he asked as he shook the pellets around his prize roses. I was trying to remember more of what the woman told me.

"Oh, yeah, she also said skunks wouldn't be a threat for biting, and they warn you by turning their backs to you and lifting their tails before they even spray."

"Hmm," Dad said. He sure didn't sound convinced.