Pepe's Fate

Around Labor Day this year, the smell of skunk suddenly perfumed our back yard. Not a full blast of skunk, but just enough to remind us of the one-of-a-kind stink every time we went outside using the back door. "Where's the skunk?" Lilly would ask. "I haven't seen one."

I hadn't either, but I figured the smell was left over from some unseen fight some dark night between a skunk passing through and a raccoon defending his territory. I've seen raccoons around here. But it was pure speculation about whether raccoons and skunks ever mix it up.

Anyway, the stink lasted a week or so, and then faded from nose and memory. Today I mowed the back yard, maybe for the last time in 2010. The last time I'd done so was in early September, because of slow grass growth, inconveniently timed rain and my own sloth. Leaning against the back yard fence is a large plastic kiddie pool, a blue oval that I keep there during the warm months. Lilly has long outgrown it, of course, but Ann could still use it, though she didn't bother with it this summer. I noticed that a little rain water had collected in the kiddie pool, so I tipped it over to pour out the water, and all at once smelled skunk again -- just a little.

Behind the kiddie pool and near the fence was a decaying animal corpse, but with enough distinctive skunk fur to make identification certain, as if the smell wasn't enough. Somehow the animal, let's call him Pepe, bit the dust here. When I have time for it in a day or two, I'll take a shovel out there and put him in a hole next to where he fell. It's the least I can do. Actually, it's the most I can do, since taxidermy isn't within my skill set.

One more note: Google "Pepe Le Pew" and the search engine suggests "Pepe Le Pew quotes." He was never a favorite of mine, but he is Warner-canonical, so I let myself be distracted by that search. Big Cartoon Forum has only one quote for the Gallic skunk, which is, "Zee cabbage does not run away from zee corn-beef."