Another really, really neat creature is the racoon. I never want to get entangled with one, but they are certainly beautiful; they waddle when they walk and I heard one once and her language sounded sorta between a toad croak mixed with a bit of squeak noises.
But, indigo, I wish I had a suggestion to help with your problem. We never found a solution
We were camping one time and were irresponsible and forgot to pull up the dog food for the night. A skunk came in and my dog--being normal and natural--defended her dish...POUNCING directly onto the skunk. (This happened about 3 or so feet from my hub and me). She got lucky and had her eyes closed when the spray shot her in the face, up her nasal cavities, mouth and shoulders. (Skunk spray can blind an animal

). Much to our dismay, (scared to death), she retreated smack dab right inside the tent where were were lying and landed on both our heads!!! The scent was so concentrated and potent, we thought we'd been gased! Not being able to stand the stench, we packed up camp at about 3 in the morning and began our drive home ... the morning light finally came and we stopped in the first town on our route home to go to a diner and get at least a few cups of coffee to jolt us awake so we could continue our trip and make it home safely. The poor waiter took one wiff of us and ...

... they sat us as far away from other diners as possible, threw coffee at us and hoped we would leave quickly! LOL
Our pup wasn't hurt, just stunned; and since she got sprayed in her nasal cavity, every time she sneezed for about 3-4 months, we could still smell the awful skunk smell!

LOL ... poor thing
Skunks are very cute ... AT A DISTANCE!
