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Skunks Make Horrible Customers!

What happens when a skunk wanders into a store.

By Al RussellPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Skunks Make Horrible Customers!
Photo by Bryan Padron on Unsplash

Going out to play darts had always been fun and exciting for me. But not as exciting as the adventure a small black critter with a white stripe down his back created. The evening started out as most dart nights did, I’m at the line thinking to myself that I must concentrate, my aim must be perfect to make the shot. As I was about to release the dart my leg starts to vibrate, the dart missed it mark and I answered my phone.

“What,” I said, “There’s a drunk in the store?” My pharmacy manager replied, “Nooooooo, a skunk!” Oh, now that’s completely different. How in the world did a skunk get into the store and where is it now I wondered? He explained that the critter just waddled through the door and came directly back to the pharmacy area where it found a low shelf to get on, curled up and went to sleep.

Hannah, one of the pharmacy technician, had run out of the pharmacy and refused to go back in. The pharmacy manager tried to coax the animal out of the pharmacy using cat food to make a trail to the door. The skunk refused to budge, he had found his bed for the night and had settled in. With closing time for the pharmacy approaching and unable to remove the critter from the pharmacy a decision was made to close the store, which usually stayed open an hour later than the pharmacy, as well as the pharmacy to have the skunk follow the trail of cat food to the back room during the night. All of the upper management, along with the pharmacy manager and myself agreed to meet in the morning to come up with a plan to evacuate the critter from the building.

The morning drive to the store was a continuation of more headaches. I’m stopped at an intersection waiting for the traffic to clear. I see the car across from me begin to move. Oh No, STOP, I thought, there isn’t enough space to; BAM! Then I realized, oh man, their coming toward me, Bam, I’m involved. No one is hurt, but now I’m stuck waiting for the police to come. I called my store to let them know I was involved in an accident, and that I would arrive once the police are done collecting all the information they need.

Once the officer arrived on the scene and all the information was collected the officer commented that I was an innocent bystander. The driver of one car didn’t have a license and the driver of the other car didn’t have insurance. Somewhere in the conversation with the officer I mentioned about the skunk in my store and how I was going in to help remove him from the premises. He stops writing, smiles and then flips his notebook. Starts writing again and then hands me the paper. I looked at the paper and thanked him. He had given me a recipe to remove the aroma of a skunk.

Arriving at my store, I noticed that we should be open, but the note on the door said closed due to critter. I opened the door and a large german shepherd runs toward me. My boss yells, “Look out Al!” I laughed, this german shepherd is the half-sister to my oldest german shepherd and is a friend of mine. She had been recruited to help locate the skunk who is no longer in the pharmacy section.

Nose to the ground, the large german shepherd trots off toward the back of the store. The gaggle of humans followed. She shoved her nose at some boxes in the backroom. The small black and white creature had found a new resting place and didn’t seem to mind us on the other side of the boxes. One of the district mangers moved the boxes. The shepherd leaped toward the beast, but halted with a quick tug of the leash. Removing the german shepherd from the backroom, our attention focused on the waking beast.

The critter seamed much larger as it strutted out into the open. The black tail slowly raised, hissing began as we positioned ourselves around the backroom. The large backroom door leading to the back alley was opened along with the side door allowing the sunlight to come in. Eyeing us up, the critter does the only thing it could think of. The tail raised even higher. It didn’t take long for the venomous vapor to reach our nostrils. Skirting the perimeter of our blockade he bolts toward the only opening we gave him. The doors closed with relief that the ordeal was now over.

Boxes scattered the back room as the pungent odor seeped into the sales floor area. My heart sank as I looked around. I had spent a lot of time organizing the backroom getting it ready for the inventory a couple days later. My boss walked me outside, he wanted to see the damaged car from the accident. The thought of the accident only added to my depression. Scheduled to close that night only added to my concerns. My boss told me to go home and get myself cleaned up. He said he had some things he wanted to do at my store and he would see me when I came in for my shift.

When I returned for my shift, I had missed my boss by minutes. A detailed note from him telling me what he needed me to do in the next couple of days. There wasn’t anything on the list about the backroom. I decided to go back there to get that back in shape. To my surprised the backroom was in perfect shape. The floor had been cleaned, boxes put back the way they were, and the smell was dissipating. He cleaned the backroom for me and taken all that pressure off me. I realized then how lucky I was to have a great boss like that and that skunk failed to pay for the cat food he ate.

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