Mike Redding
Mar 21, 2009
SOURCE: Carolina Traveler
Not sure how I heard about these people. Sometimes I find stories and sometimes they find me. Â Oh wait! I remember. One of our special projects producers, Rachel Clapp, told me about this one.
When you hear about a couple living with 40 skunks, you look at your photographer and say, "Don't wear your nice clothes!" Interestingly, I was unable to make this shoot. I was out of town or sick or the dog ate my schedule, I just remember it was a really good excuse. So Andy had to go it alone. (I'm still chuckling about that.)
How you end up with 40 skunks (it was 42 actually, but two of the skunks are set to be re-released into the wild, the other 40 are domestic) in your home is not an easy question to answer. Â But it goes something like this, "Well I got one because I didn't want your run-of-the-mill pet. And then as I learned more about them and how they're being over-breeded (new word) and there aren't enough homes I had to help." Forty skunks later you're spending more than $4,000 a year on skunk food and even more on vet bills.
But hey, you're doing something positive, right? And so it goes for Milton and Landa Berry of Summerville, S.C. Their home is overrun with skunks! They're everywhere. Under the blankets on their bed, eating popcorn off the kitchen counter, climbing up your leg, everywhere!
And yes, it's just as weird as you imagine. And yet somehow normal, in a parallel universe sort of way. But you can't argue with folks trying to help. They're doing more than I am.
Here's a link to the rescue group with which the Miltons work: keeperofthewild.org.
