Skunk, possum and snake.

So... days in my family are never dull! Today I get a phone call from my mom. She starts explaining to me that she heard the dogs barking outside ferociously and not stopping. She walks out the back door and sees a skunk between the two dogs (a Brittney spaniel and a good sized mutt) and a mule and a horse. The mule was pawing at the skunk trying to kill it. The dogs were barking and jumping at the skunk. I tell my mom that the skunk has to be rabid. Skunks are nocturnal and do not come out during the day. If a skunk is out during the day, there is something wrong. The other hint was that the skunk was trying to fight all of the 4 animals surrounding him. Skunks aren't natural fighters. Mom tells me that she shot the skunk twice already but it wasn't dead. Rabid animals are harder to kill, more resilient. She wanted me to find out what she needed to do with the skunk once she killed it.

I made some phone calls and found out that the rabid skunk needed to be buried or burned. I call back to tell her that. By then, my brother had gotten home from school. They were both outside trying to find the skunk. Now, they believed that there was a skunk and babies. The skunk had run into the hay barn after my mother shot it. I got home a few minutes later. They called me over to help chase the skunk and its babies out. My brother managed to move a piece of wood in the pile they were hiding under and saw that there was a skunk AND a possum. The skunk had the possum by the tail. It was biting the possum's tail. Now, possums are disgusting creatures. There's a picture of a possum to the right. Still, I feel less bad about killing a possum. My brother hands me a gun and he holds one as my mother prepares to shake the wood pile and frighten the two nasty creatures out. They run out and run away from me. My brother shoots at hits the possum. My mother takes the shotgun from me and shoots into the hay barn once the skunk and the possum came into sight. She hit both of them because the shell has little tiny balls that spread. The skunk dies but the possum keeps running. My brother runs around the barn as we try to catch the damn thing. The last thing we need is some rabid animal running free. Eventually, it would die somewhere and whatever animal eats the carcass will also be infected with rabies. My brother finds it and shoots it. The thing finally dies. I'm looking at it and I say, "there's a snake inside the possum or it's still breathing." I could see something moving but I wasn't sure if the animal was still breathing or if something was under it. My brother puts the gun a couple feet from the possum's head and pulls the trigger.

Now, we have to figure out a way to dispose of the bodies. My mom goes back to the house to get some paper to burn on the bottom of the barrel that we are going to burn them in. I go to shovel the nasty, nasty possum up and can't get it to stay on the damn shovel. Finally, my brother gets it on the shovel and hands it to me. I take the shovel. That's when I see it. The possum's belly is still moving because there are baby possums (disgusting rat looking things and I HATE rats) in its pouch. I try to hurry and carry the shovel over to the pit but at this point I'm super upset and disgusted. I hand the shovel to my little brother and bend over. I feel like I'm about to puke. I didn't though. We loaded the burning barrel full of paper and then put the possum body in. I went back to the barn with the shovel and picked up the skunk. I took the skunk over to the barrel and we light the thing on fire. Immediately, we all go inside and shower and wash all of our clothes. Luckily, we never got sprayed directly. Still, we smelled like skunk.

I think I'm going to have nightmares about the ugly little rat-like possum babies. They also make this horrible shrieking noise. Once we found them under the wood pile they all made this horrible noise. It's almost like scratching your nails across a chalkboard. That kind of awful noise. I despise those little disgusting creatures. Still, life is never dull on the ranch.