Our Cat's new friend

So, definately a shock of my life last night.
Went out to grab something out of the car late last night and as soon as I stepped out on the side porch, I spotted our cat and a new friend of hers. As I was giving her a scratch behind the ear, I noticed that her friend was black with a nice white stripe down it's back.
Wasn't a cat.

So it appears I have a very young, friendly skunk.

What do I do with a skunk that apparently is not scared of humans?

 

I would certainly keep an eye out for other strange behavior and insure that your cat is up on her rabbis vaccine.

 

Oh ya, shots are all up to date and she is fixed (no stripped kittens if that is possible).
This little guy had to be very young as it wasn't really any bigger then our small cat. Just had more fur

 

Here in the northeast USA skunks are major carriers of rabies. That doesn’t mean that they have to be removed, euthanized, etc but that we need to be aware and stay away as best is possible. When an animal is infected with rabies, it does become complacent and loses its inhibitions and exhibits unusual behavior, sometimes such as you’ve described. In short time it will die (if it is infected).

Skunks will live under sheds, wood piles, stored material, etc.

 

Here, raccoons are the more common carrier of rabies.
I would be comfortable to say that we have a reasonably low population of skunks here as you rarely see them. In all my time in the bush, I've never seen one in the actual bush.

Being that I live in a cottage/vacation town (but live right downtown), I am less concerned that they are here, and more concerned that it's hanging out with my cat on my porch.

I'm going to check with the local ministry of natural resources to see what actions can be taken. I can't simply shot it as I do live in town (discharging a fire arm in town is a no no), and it'll stink for months after the fact.

 

Hopefully it will figure out that you cat is not a fellow skunk and move on. In the mean time I would make sure that your cat's food and water are only accessible to her. If the skunk has access to her food it may never leave.

Back when our cat's food & water was outside we soon had raccoons, opossums, skunks and squirrels making nightly visits. Every trick we tried outside failed so we installed a automatic locking cat door to a garage and we put the food inside. The cat wears an RFID collar that unlocks the door only for her.

 

I am hoping it moves along on it's own. That woud be prefered over seeing it put down as a pest.

If I get a chance, I will see if I can go out and retrieve one of my tree cameras and set it up at the house. It'll give a good insight into it's habits around the house.

 

Several years ago my wife's cat showed up at the back door squalling and carrying on. I knew immediatley what had happened. The smell clued me in. My wife ignored my shout not to let the cat in. Big mistake! She opened the door and the freshly sprayed, freaked out cat ran all over the house and finally ended up under our bed. It was weeks before we got the smell out.

We see skunks in the yard most evenings. A mother and a couple of little ones. No big deal, if I'm working in the yard they ignore me and I ignore them. However, I am always watching their behavior.