Skunk Busters

Mom and Jack have decided that it's too much trouble to go up to the ranch for Thanksgiving. We will be celebrating the big family holiday at our home this year, so we're finding other weekends to enjoy fall at the ranch. We went up on Saturday and spent the night with Meg, Ted and Hannah. There is always some kind of big adventure happening at the ranch. This weekend, I thought it would simply be the opening meet for the fox hunt club which started early Sunday morning. I was able to sleep that night because I was assured the fox is in on the game - they just chase him but don't kill him.

Gary was up at 5 AM, before the roosters, so he could drive down to the big red gates and open them for the hunters. Dozens of trucks pulling horse trailers arrived before 7 AM. I awoke around that time to the sound of hounds barking and gazed out to the lower meadow to see something right out of merry olde England. There were men and women dressed in scarlet or black jackets, white breeches with high black English boots and black hats milling around with their horses. Finally, someone blew a funny-sounding little brass horn and - Tally Ho - they were off.

That was my cue to take off in search of coffee over at Meg's house. Gary and I sat down on their front porch with coffee and Ted came walking up from the barn. "Gary, do you have any great tips on skunk extraction? A skunk is in the chicken coop and has eaten one of the chickens and cleared out all the eggs." Whoa, I thought, those poor chickens. They were just recovering from the twister that hit the ranch a couple of weeks ago and now a skunk is among them. Gary said, "Let's go have a look." Vanna dog raced after them and I yelled for her to come back, knowing that any encounter between Vanna and a skunk was bad news. She'd be better off chasing the fox.

About 15 minutes later, they were back, this time to get serious about ridding the ranch of the latest chicken terrorist. I won't go into their skunk-busting solution, but needless to say, nobody could smell the bacon cooking for the great fox hunt brunch on the lawn in front of Meg's home. Hopefully the chickens slept well last night, but we left the ranch before noon.