Black And White

The girls were acting squirrely in the barn yesterday, and I have enough squirrels to deal with, thank you very much.  The last goat was out when Bessie, outside the pen, began a serious, "You'd better come see this, Mom," barking.  Oh, crum.  Pepe Le Pew's cousin was up at the corner on the inside, just a few feet from Bessie Anne.  Since skunks can spray upwards of 10 feet, I thought, "This isn't going to end well."  Fragrant Francois turned away from the fence without letting Bess have it in the face (whew!) and headed toward the barn.  Oh, no!  The goats clustered behind me as I grabbed a stick and tried to head the little creature off.  I'm not as fast as I once was, and Francois went into the shed at the side of the barn.  "No, kiddo, not gonna happen.  There is no welcome mat out for you here."  I banged on the walls and yelled and Frankie finally found a way out and went off around the far side of the barn. 

Thinking the drama was over, I went to clean the back stalls with rake and shovel.  Busy in Sheila's room, I turned and was shocked to see Francois in the aisle right behind me.  By this time, I was feeling sorry for the little guy.  It was a grey, cold morning and he probably just wanted some place to get warm.  There was, however, no room in this inn for this guest.  I was able to turn him away with the shovel and got him outside the barn, where we were joined by the goats.  Tessie, wanting to help, even butted the skunk.  Why she wasn't sprayed, I'll never know, but I was ever so grateful.  Can you imagine having to sit next to a skunked goat on the stand, or even have such an odiferous animal in the barn?  I was finally able to get Frankie out into the big pen where he trotted down toward Robert's fence line (and away from Bess).

I am worried that Francois might have had distemper like Pepe.  His reactions were not normal for a wild animal.  Animal Services is not open on weekends, so there was no one to call, but I'm concerned about an epidemic.

I had enough black-and-white excitement for one day...a whole lot of days, actually.