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With baby season only a few months away and people deciding whether or not they want to put a deposit down on a baby skunk, I want to talk about one of what I consider the "best kept secrets" of skunk ownership.  Their ability to be litter trained.  I talk to people when I am out with my skunk and when they ask about my skunk's restroom habits I always gloss over them with "they're litter trained" or "they use puppy pads" and move on.  There is SO much more to skunk potty training than that, and it can become a disaster if you aren't prepared for it.

A bit of background to explain this:  I am an anosmic.  I have no sense of smell at all. I was born that way and doctors have told me that there's no way to bring it back.  I'm smell blind. This fact of my everyday life makes it twice as hard to keep my house clean, since I have chosen to keep animals who hoard poop. I don't believe skunks hoard poop on purpose. I think as babies they don't know any better, and as adults they are either angry or lazy.  But it happens, and far more than a lot of us like to admit. I don't know many skunk owners who don't have at least one story of finding a poop hoard somewhere their skunk had designated as a den.  This is mine: 

That's right. I was informed that because of the shape of their body and the fact that they are bad at climbing DOWN from things that I would never have to worry about them climbing up either.  15 years and 7 skunks later I am calling BS on this person. I have had skunks climb into the strangest of places, with no idea how they got there, and often found them highly distressed at the fact that they can't get back down.  Although, there have been times when seeing them climb down was the only reason I was able to figure out how they got up in the first place. 

There have been a few times in my life where I have decided that my home is not filled with enough skunky glory. Sometimes the decision was thrust upon be by the appearance of an unwanted skunk that I just couldn't leave behind. Other times it was one made by the loss of a long time skunk, leaving behind one lonely skunk who was used to having a friend. But, whatever choice made me decide to take a new skunk and introduce it into my house when there were fullgrown skunks already residing there, I have discovered that it can be a long drawn out trial to get peace in your household once again.

Here are a few things to remember when introducing a new skunk to your home...

Around Easter I took both of my skunks to the Florida Skunk Easter Egg Hunt.  It took place outside an on a back porch, and though the temperature was OK in the morning, by mid-afternoon both me and the girls were what can only be described as sweltering. Stunky handled it the best.  She found a couch to crawl under and sat in a nice cool shady place.  Gingerbread, however, sat in the stroller panting and drooling trying to cool herself off.