Email From a Friend

Our son, James, was preparing for a trip to D.C. last Wed. night, when he noticed a very odd
smell in his 24th floor apt.  This was around 10:30.

He checked everything he could, when BINGO!  He realized he was smelling SKUNK!! Everyone on his hallway was gathered in the corridor holding their noses!  The all marched downstairs together.  Turns out some really strange father had brought in several animals for his kids to see for Easter!  A skunk among them!

The bldg. called in the ASPCA, or their equivalent, as well as the police. James called us from an Irish pub nearby at 11 his time.  He did manage to get some sleep that night….and on the train, but still hasn’t heard the outcome.  We await the next chapter!

Now if that skunk had only been Smelvis with two scents!
Just had to share this tidbit with you!  
—Janet Berger

Where Do Ideas Come From?

Several years ago, my wife and I were upstairs in the bathroom of our home in Los Angeles when we heard a twittering sound in the backyard below. It sounded like birds or, perhaps, kittens.

We looked down below. It was nighttime and we could make out the black and white striped pattern of a mother skunk and four little babies. She led them to our recirculating fountain and gave them a bath.

A few evenings later, we were having dinner in the backyard when we heard a clattering sound. It was a skunk– just one this time- eating out of our dog’s dish just a few feet away. We didn’t dare move a muscle till he left.

About a week later, we smelled that stinky skunk smell in the backyard. One of the skunks had taken up residence under our house, just beneath the kitchen. Whenever anyone stepped out in the backyard, the skunk sprayed—as skunks do—in self-defense.

The skunk had found a home and had no intention of leaving. We called the Animal Rescue. A man came, set up a cage with peanut butter as bait. The skunk fell for it and was trapped in the cage. The Animal Rescue man then took the skunk away and set it free in the woods.

From that experience, after two or three years of incubation, came the story of “Smelvis, The Two-Scent Skunk.”