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Peggy  Dean, age 8, of Pierce, Nebraska, for her~question:

How can a skunk stand his own smell?

On a breezy day the smell of a skunk may carry for a half a mils or more. It is horrible, even at this distance. Sometimes a dog teases a skunk and gets sprayed with the smelly, chemical. When this happens, the poor dog carries the odor for days and maybe weeks. It is natural to wonder how the furry skunk endues his own horrible smell.

Cats have claws and bees have stings to defend themselves. The pretty black and white skunk defends himself with chemicals. He has two musk glands under his tail where the terrible smelling chemicals are made. When threatened, he squirts a spray of this juice right in the face of his tormentor. But never, or almost never, does the skunk get any of this smelly stuff on his own furry coat.

The skunk juice is so powerful that his enemy may be blinded with tears. While he howls with rage and pain, the chemical warrior waddles off all sweet and clean. He knows just how to squirt his juice so that none of it fails upon his own furry coat.

The black and white skunk is an easy going character and he never picks a fight. Why should he? For his chemical weapons are so strong that he can hold off many fierce animals in the woods with no trouble at all. But dogs and coyotes and other creatures do not always know this.

As a rule, the skunk sleeps during the day and forages only at night. But sometimes ha strolls around during the daytime   and this is when he may be spotted by a dog who wants to play or fight. The slow moving skunk looks like an easy victim and the dog moves closer with threatening barks.

The skunk does not want to fight, but he is ready. He growls and stamps his furry foot as a warning.

But if the dog still threatens him, the skunk turns around and lifts his fluffy tail. At the right moment he uses his muscles to squirt a jet of skunk juice right in the dog's face. The clever skunk usually stands facing the wind and his smelly chemical blows away in the opposite direction. The poor dog is blinded with tears and howling with pain and the skunk waddles off away from his own horrible smell. Sometimes two male skunks fight for the love of a lady skunk. They usually battle each other with teeth and claws but only once in a great while two rival skunks may get angry enough to squirt each other.

 A furry black and white skunk makes a very lovable pet. But just in case the little fellow may forget himself, the musk glands of a pet skunk are removed. We never free the darling back to live in the wilds. He has lost the weapon to defend himself and the poor fellow would soon be devoured by same hungry enemy.

 

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