Skunk

I am inhabiting the territory of many other beings. As a dominant predator, I often forget this. Forgetting this is shattered by the odor of a skunk under my porch. This is a good thing and a bad thing.

 

The good part is being reminded of my place in the planet's ecology. I rely on skunks in the great chain of life. The skunk is inconvenienced by my house and asphalt driveway with automated lighting. Skunks really dislike light at night. The shelter under my porch must just seem like the instinctive choice for the skunk's winter residence. Dark, warm and sealed off from larger predators.

 

I will say honestly that an odor-free skunk would be more than welcome under my porch. I am not neurotically afraid of the typical animals that rummage around my house. I don't want squirrels in my attic (actually or figuratively), but I don't obsess on the squirrels that are always around due to the walnut tree overhanging my property from the adjacent yard. Field mice never frightened me. The discreet urban rat does not concern me, as long as it stays out of my house.

 

No, it's just the odor, which has been naturally selected to repel me, a large potential predator. It's working very well. I am repelled, but unfortunately in my own house. That's the bad part.

 

The best advice so far, garnered through the gift of Google, is to blast the underside of my porch with 24-hour bright lights for several weeks. Brilliant. Off to Home Depot, again. I adapt. That's what human beings are fortunate enough to do intentionally through science and engineering. The skunk will most likely adapt instinctively by finding a new place to nest. Hopefully, neither of us will be harmed or sprayed in the process.