Welcome as a Skunk at a Garden Party

A number of years ago I wrote a story about one of my more unusual pets that bears repeating. When I was growing up I was always fascinated by animals of every kind. I had many different pets, from goldfish to turtles, from white mice to puppies - but I was always the most excited about unusual types of pets.

Back in the 1950s when I was still in elementary school, our class had a book fair. As I browsed through the books, one in particular caught my eye. It was titled, Wild Animal Pets. It was a fascinating book, to say the least, with many colorful photos and a complete guide on the care and feeding of such pets. The book also explained the pros and cons of having a non-domesticated type of pet. I learned that one of the most adaptable of the Wild Animal Pets was the skunk, of all things; de-scented, of course, to make it safer to handle.

At the time, my family was living in Berwyn, Illinois just outside of Chicago and even though I dreamed of having such a pet, it was pretty doubtful that I would ever have one at that time -- but I never lost that dream.

My father passed away when I was quite young and my Mom and I moved up here to the central Wisconsin area to be closer to her family. I grew up in the Medford area and one day, as I was out riding my bike, I went past a neighbors house and right there on the porch was a small cage with several baby skunks in it. At that time it was OK to have a pet skunk, but since then the DNR regulations h ...