PUTTING THE "WILD" IN WILDLIFE

One of the reasons I love Park City so much is the proximity of wildlife. We. are. surrounded. No, let me rephrase that.... at times we are inundated. Autumn is one of those times.

Because the weather is turning colder, the larger game is coming down from the higher elevations, often with offspring looking for warmth and food.

Yes, those are moose. Yes, they are in my backyard.

Yes, as you can see by the grapes on the deck railing, we are feeding them (shhhhh... a big no no). A side note- they love apples, peaches, pears and grapes.  Bananas- not so much.

Wildlife can be a little hard on the landscaping...

But when they kneel to apologize, it's easy to forgive them.

Actually, what I have come to realize is that baby moose's legs grow much faster than their necks.  So while mama's neck can reach the ground to eat without kneeling, the calves legs are too long to do so. Weird, right?

Moose aren't our only entertainment right now.  It is the rutting season for the local elk population and the golf course is the local singles bar. 

In fact, our back yard seems to be speed dating central. The elk bugle is our lullaby every night. The herd of elk on the golf course during the day is annoying to the local duffers, because all play has to stop until they decide to meander on.  The golf course ropes off the greens in a feeble attempt to keep hoof marks from destroying the putting surfaces.

Ahh, if large game were the only thing looking for warmth this time of year..

Unfortunately, this little guy is not just a visitor.  He has taken up residence in our garage. I mean as in living there. He gets along great with our two outdoor cats, they share the same food dish and beds. He doesn't seem to be too freaked out by our human appearances in the garage.  He took over one of the cat beds on a garage shelf where he was sleeping every day (skunks are nocturnal) that I would get within 2 feet of as I got into my car every morning on my way to work before we even realized he/she was there.

I called the county animal control to see what my options were. Apparently, the options are co-existence or death. The county wont come trap it, so either I do it myself, or pay someone to do it. Trapping it myself seems a little iffy.. what do I do then? How do I move the trap without getting sprayed?  But trapping it is certain death as it is illegal to release a skunk or a raccoon within county limits because there are too many. So once it is trapped it has to be euthanized. 

It seems to be mellow enough, that coexistence might be considered if we could just teach it to use the litter box....