Skunk Funk

Let’s get this out of the way first; skunks in Costa Rica are really cute.  I hate to do anything to cause them any sort of consternation because they are adorable and generally just scamper around not causing any problems, but even I have my limits.

A few days ago, Riaz and I woke up in the middle of night to a pretty horrific smell in our bedroom.  My first thought was SKUNK, but sort of different than the U.S. skunks.  The smell was coming out of one of the electrical sockets and it sort of had a chemically smell to it so I started to think FIRE!  GET OUT!  GET OUT!  GET OUT!  But I have a newborn and a two year old and I get very little sleep, so instead I just closed my eyes and blocked it out until I passed out again.

The next day the smell was gone, so we thought it was just a one-off occurrence.  Not so.

Two nights later, the smell woke us up again, except this time it was so strong my eyes were burning and Sofia couldn’t sleep.  We got up, moved the sleeping operation out to the living room and resolved to call the Canadian in the morning to find out what the deal was.

The Canadian came by bright and early and said … SKUNK!  I knew it.  I really hate being so right all the time.

We determined that there were several openings in the lower part of the house that the skunk could be using to get in and that we needed to get that little darling OUT or else it would continue to mark its territory then have little babies that would also be … marking.  Not good.

I called the lady who owns the house to report the skunk attack.  Our landlady is German and is awesome and very eccentric.  I LOVE her.  Like, a lot.  When I told her of the skunk, her exact response (in a thick German accent) was this:

I love so much to be living in the jungle, but zees fucking leetle animals.

She is the best.

Pest control was called and arrived the next day to use another horrific smelling substance (some kind of chili, garlic mixture that is so strong it burns your eyes) to drive the skunk out, which seems … ironic.

We saw a skunk last night and had smelled some skunky-type smells before we went to bed, but I think the skunk is just trying to figure out where to go next.  Hopefully it will choose very far away.  Grandpa and Sofia are not fans.