Don Barber, best known as one of Mississauga's political watchdogs, has taken on a more nurturing role this week in saving four orphaned baby skunks.
Barber said he was driving along South Service Rd., near Cawthra Rd., Tuesday night when he noticed "a couple of black and whites" walking on the sidewalk. He did a double take and realized they were four baby skunks.
After using his camera to shoot video of their cute antics, he realized the skunks didn't seem to know what they were doing and no mother could be found.
So, he loaded them into his car and took them home, where he noticed they were dehydrated and hungry.
Barber started bottle-feeding them with kitten-formula milk and he's found people who'll help raise them until they're ready to be re-introduced to the wild.
"These are not pets in any way, shape or form," he said, warning people, "not to try this on your own."
Barber said it's a shame Mississauga doesn't have a wildlife rehabilitation facility, noting the former Roy Ivor Bird Sanctuary on Mississauga Rd. would have been a perfect place for the skunks.
In the meantime, his car still stinks from the small, but smelly, passengers, and neighbours tell him he does, too. Barber doesn't care, though; he's just relieved the skunks are safe, and not dead along the roadside.
"I am one of the very few people who would be willing to help them," Barber said, adding he cared for a skunk when he was a youngster. "Baby skunks can make a stink, not a big one, but a stink."
