Opening salvo in the Great Skunk War of 2009

Our house in Somerville has two porches that serve as barracks for at least two skunks.

Today, Sharon and I fired the first salvo, using a piece of chicken wire (AKA "hardware cloth") to prevent Merle (the commander-in-chief of the skunk army) from tunneling under the lattice work under the front porch.

Historic photos from the trench warfare occurring at the northern front have reached Flickr.

Update: As of the next morning, the fortifications had not been breached! However, there was a whiff of skunk in the front hall for a few minutes. It may be that we have misjudged which side of enemy lines we were on, or more specifically, which side the enemy was on.