The humane cage might not have been such a good idea

We have rabbits happily chomping on my plants. We tried a few things and resorted to buying a humane cage. We caught 2 rabbits, an adult and a little one and released them in a field.

The other morning, following my routine, I got out to turn on the pool and noticed the neighbour’s cat on top of the fence. At this hour, it’s now still dark, so I squinted and automatically looked down at the cage. Something was moving, so I figured we caught another one! I got nearer to see if it was another baby rabbit and noticed it wasn’t brown, but white.

A nice white stripe with black on the sides…

Yup! it wasn’t a rabbit, but a skunk. So now I know that the dogs weren’t to be blamed for digging in the flower beds. 🙂

I woke my husband up, told him we caught something and no way was it staying in the cage all day! We had to release like, now!

In the meantime, the skunk had been busy trying to dig herself out of there. The cage is wire all around, so she had access to the dirt. I think eventually, she might have been able to dig a tunnel under the fence and make it through with the whole cage 😀 The cage was full of earth, grass and half a hosta.

My husband covered the cage with an old towel and opened the door, gently shooing her. She almost came out, but the door slipped out of my husband’s fingers, right on her nose. Ouch! The poor thing just backed up to the back of the cage, clearly thinking, no way, man, you’re not getting me again! Finally, he poked her gently and she made it out. I think we insulted her enough, she’ll never come back!

The nice thing is that she never sprayed. She knew she was caught and that we were there to help.

Yes, the cage seems to help. So far, we only caught the 2 and spotted a third. The trick is to place the cage where the rabbit comes in. Ever since we started this, the clematitis started to grow. 😀

Actually, we were both amazed. But either she didn’t have the room to truly lift her tail, or she knew we were going to help. They’re pretty smart.

I love skunks. They real cute, it’s just too bad they stink. In Québec, they call them “Belle puante”, Beautiful stinker. I find the name fits perfectly!