Stinky Way to Start the Day

A skunk learned a hard lesson Saturday morning when it got its head stuck inside an empty plastic peanut bottle on Rustic Terrace in.

freshman Maggie Brown said she walked outside her front door around 6:30 a.m. to check the weather for lacrosse practice and heard a rustling in the nearby shrubs.

"At first I thought, 'Oh, wow, it's a skunk," said Brown, 14. "But then I noticed the bottle on its head."

Brown summoned her mother, Kathy, and the two followed the animal, and at one point, Kathy tried to pull the Planter's Peanuts bottle off its head and ended up flinging the skunk a few feet, bottle firmly stuck on its head.

A officer arrived but by then, the animal had disappeared.

It quickly returned and hid under the Brown's minivan parked in the driveway, alternating between being motionless and swinging its head back and forth.

Little Silver Animal Control Officer Kerry Gowen arrived and before Patch could get outside with a camera, she had looped a device around the bottle pulling it loose, and the skunk made a hasty retreat.

"Oh, yeah," said Gowen later, "it happens all the time."

She said animals get caught in mayonnaise and peanut butter jars and soda cans cut open to pour cooking grease into.

Gowen, who lives in Highlands and is contracted by the borough and paid per call, said that in 23 years on the job, she's never been sprayed by a skunk.

She said in her own house, her husband makes sure all recyclables are thoroughly cleaned to prevent animals from sniffing around their empty bottles and cans.

"I just kept thinking about the skunk in Bambi," said Kathy Brown.