Woodstone Prairie

It was Small But Fearless Defender (SBFD, aka Cody) versus Stinky this morning…

SBFD was both victorious and came away from the battle unscathed.

SBFD was lucky, it could easily have gone the other way…

Early this morning Cody SBFD was sitting up on the bed looking out the window that overlooks the back pasture. This is his habit each morning… he watches for anything that might be moving outside so he can bark at it.

(Once we are back from the barn early mornings are pretty dull around here, so Cody looks for entertainment any place he can find it.)

He lucked out this morning and saw this skunk out rooting around out back.

Cody was beside himself with excitement… He couldn’t wait to get outside and save us all by running the little guy off.

All the dogs needed to go outside, but the skunk was too close to the backyard fence for me to feel like I could safely let them out…

So I waited for the skunk to leave… figuring he’d move on before too long and I could let the dogs out.

But Stinky just kept digging around, blissfully oblivious to the fact that he’d worn out his welcome. (His welcome had worn out just about the time he waddled under the fence and into our pasture!).

Finally, after 30 minutes or so of Cody watching the skunk through the window and going crazy, I decided it was time to “help” Stinky move along.

I was carefully sneaking (so no dogs could get out) out the back door to find a few rocks to throw at the fence (from the relative safety behind the big ponderosa pine), when SBFD streaked past me in a blur… heading straight for the fence.

I cringed… waiting for the stench.

Stinky stood his ground briefly…

… then gave up without a fight (or spray), doing his funny little run/hop across the pasture.

SBFD stood at the fence for a long time… making sure Stinky didn’t come back.

It’s probably not a good thing that Cody chased him off this time and Stinky didn’t spray. It’s not that I want Cody sprayed… but now he has no idea of the danger of skunks, and thinks he can just run them off without any problems.

The next time Stinky comes around I hope SBFD doesn’t end up with this…

…being the last thing he sees before he’s swallowed up with noxious skunk fumes.