Peee Yeeewwww!!

As much as the cartoon character Pepe Le Pew tried to epitomize romance, you could hardly get away from the fact that he was a skunk.

The lovely Brenda at What's Up Down South had a run in with one recently and boy oh boy, do I relate!

We used to have next door neighbors who my husband called The Clampetts (will write more about that later!).

They actually allowed a family of skunks to make a nest in the insulation in their garage instead of calling the Division of Wildlife to remove them. Parked their cars outside. Left the garage door open for easy access.

They aren't our neighbors anymore (will write about that too!), and the new neighbors who replaced them are just having fits.

It seems the offspring haven't actually flown the nest. They've all migrated and started families of their own close to home. And it's all on our next-door neighbor's property.

The skunks stay away from us, at least during the daytime. We have dogs who are vigilant and noisy. But at night, when the skunks venture out, there are a ton of predators roaming as well, such as foxes and owls.

Up here in the mountains, it seldom gets really REALLY hot during the summer. So there's no need for central air-conditioning. We just leave our windows and enclosed deck doors open and have fans. At night everything usually cools off considerably.

Almost once a week or every other week this summer, we've all awoken choking on heavy, oily skunk stank in the wee hours of the early morning. Once I even threw up. We wake up and race to close every window and door before it permeates the whole house.

So here lies the dilemma. Do we close everything up every night (and be hot and stifled) or keep everything open and hope for the best?

Thursday was our wedding anniversary. Hubby and I waited an appropriate time for the boys to fall into heavy sleep and got down to getting romantical.

Much to my delight, Hubby was kissing his way up my arm, ala Gomez Adams, when suddenly he stopped.

His nose quivered.

"Did you fart?" he asked bluntly.

It was those freaking skunks again! We ran around and closed everything up. What a way to ruin a mood!

It's hard to feel sexy when everything smells like a cross between dirty socks and ass.

I curse you, Pepe! I curse you!