critter under the house part III

I have a few minutes before I need to head home for the day so I thought I would share the final chapter (knock on wood) of the critter under the house. We lucked out really. We had two very easy captures. Not bad for a bunch of armatures, eh?
This one went a little differently. This one got trapped somewhere between midnight and 7am. Luckily it was the same skunk as pictured at the end of part II. I didn't have the luxury of covering it while it was still occupied with its bait this time, freshly captured and a little disoriented.
When I woke up and peeked outside the window the skunk was in there trying to dig through the trap with all of its might. The cage was rocking back and forth. I'm not going to lie, I was scared. I was not prepared to mess with a pissed off skunk. So I did what any good mother would do. I cracked the window and threw pieces oatmeal cream pies at it until it chilled out! Luckily it worked. With my husband as lookout, I slowly opened the window and lay the blanket over top of the cage as it snacked on oatmeal cream pies. I thought it would be best to just leave it under cover and let it rest until the evening. Why? I'm not sure. Its a night time creature. I thought it needed a rest before we found it a new home :) There it sat all day without so much as a wiggle from under the blanket. I scouted out a better spot than the last time and as the sun set we started to prepare for the release. This time we brought an extra blanket, flashlight and some skunk treats. I went to the back of the house to retrieve the cage. First, I covered the big ole hole so nothing else got in there. As I went to pick up the cage I was not prepared for how heavy it was going to be and I about dropped it. It got snagged on some rose bushes on the way down which almost took the blanket off of the cage. I was shaking like a leaf. I finally got it to the truck without getting sprayed and off we went. The drop zone was a very dark wooded area, perfect for skunks but not so perfect and comforting for a 4 yr old. He was literally terrified despite the fact he stayed in the truck with the light on. The release went more smoothly than the first time. I got the trap door open first try but to my surprise the skunk didn't run out! I had to give it a little shake to get it going. By "shake" I mean, I tipped it from the back and practically had to dump his butt out of the trap.  Once it was out I realized why the cage was so heavy. It had made itself a little nest in there to sleep on. I guess that's what all of the digging and clawing was about. Somehow it got enough dirt and mulch together to make a decent (and heavy) bed.
So concludes this series of skunk tales. I really really really hope we don't need a part IV. I don't want to push my luck. Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies will be forever remembered in our house as "skunk treats".