The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
SKUNK LOVERS COME TOGETHER
SkunkFest celebrates love of domesticated animal
More than 750 visitors perused varieties of skunks at a 16th annual SkunkFest 2017 in North Ridgeville.
Many of the domesticated animals sported costumes as well as unique markings at the event Sept. 9 at South Central Park.
Guests and competitors arrived from all over the country.
For example, Anne Marie Underwood and her nine-year-old daughter Gabriella Underwood, who dressed as a skunk for the occasion, stayed with friends in Medina.
“We flew from Texas to be here, because she loves skunks,” Underwood said. “We visited Deborah’s Skunk Haven at Christmas time last year and came back for SkunkFest.”
Gabriella said she has collected 32 stuffed skunk toys so far, and her friend, seven-year-old Lillian McDaniel, collected two.
“I’ve loved skunks for years,” Gabriella said. “They’re my favorite
animal. And I’ve been a skunk for Halloween for the last four years. I don’t know. I love skunks. I just like the smell of them, and they’re cute. I’ve read every book in three libraries about skunks.”
Gabriella said the coolest skunk fact is no skunk has the same face, they’re all different like fingerprints are different.
Underwood said their home was spared flooding from Hurricane Harvey, but a mile away people experienced complete devastation.
And Gabriella will have to admire skunks from afar, because Texas does not allow keeping skunks as pets, she said.
Jeremiah Martin, of Willoughby, and his fiancee Jessica Eckart attended the event with twoyear-old Diesel, Martin’s second skunk.
“He is as independent as they come,” Martin said as Diesel scurried around a small fenced area. “He tries to find the dog food from our pups. I got him from a breeder in Zanesville on a whim. I left home at 9:30 at night and got her at two o’clock in the morning and surprised her with a little bundle of joy. It’s a fun animal. It’s a shock value. I love trickor-treat and handing out candy with him. Little kids don’t know what’s going on.”
Volunteer Stephanie Brunson from Sarasota,
Fla., sold SkunkFest souvenier key chains, magnets, pendants, and earrings a friend laser cut from wood and leather to raise money for Skunk Haven, a shelter for skunks.
“I’m about to get the waterfront property I’ve always wanted thanks to Irma,” Brunson said. Her flight home was canceled by the airlines, she said, and her boyfriend was evacuating the area with their four skunks and her African gray parrot, she said.
She was concerned for other family members, too, who are in Hurricane Irma’s path.
Prohibitions against moving exotic animals in the state were lifted because of the storm, she said. Also, Florida requires everyone to have an evacuation plan with emergency supplies already packed. So her boyfriend placed the skunks in carriers and grabbed the food and supplies she packed for them, making his trip much easier, she said.
Brunson fell in love with a skunk owned by a man down the hall in her college dorm. At the age of 19 she started keeping them.
“They have personalities like you wouldn’t believe,” Brunson said. “In the wild they come out at dusk and dawn. But when they live with you they adjust to your schedule so they’re awake when you’re there.
“They play stompy scoot,” Brunson said. “When skunks play as babies, they will stomp their feet on the ground and
hop toward you, put their back feet up, then they will scoot away from you. Then you stomp at them and chase after them. I also toss out cat toys on a fishing line. They chase those. Ours are laundry thieves. So we’re always playing, ‘find the missing shirts and socks.’ They hide them and make a little nest and curl up in them.”
Robin Peterson from Jacksonville, Fla., said she hopes Irma does not damage her home while she is away.
“My husband says it’s getting really windy now,” Peterson said, as she held nine-year-old Rubin, who she has had since he was a baby. He’s her third skunk and she brought all of them.
From Dupont, Ind., Cindie Vanderbur held twoyear-old Clarkson dressed for a costume contest as a “steam punk skunk.”
Clarkson was not happy about his costume, she said.
“This isn’t going to last long,” Vanderbur said, adding she chose a skunk as a pet because everyone else doesn’t.
“I thought they were really cool,” Vanderbur said. “They have all different personalities. I work in the mental health field. I work helping people in a hospital who have mental health issues get into the community.”
Also a volunteer, Tiffany Lopez from Lorain held two-year-old Gidget at a booth offering petting the skunk for $1 as a fundraiser for Skunk Haven.
“Gidget is one of the
educational animals,” Lopez said, giving the little skunk chunks of chicken, almonds and cheese cubes for a snack.
John Hoelzer, 45, of Sandusky, cuddled twoyear-old Smudge, who won king this year.
“I got interested when my wife’s aunt had a pet skunk,” Hoelzer said. “I saw that, I was amazed you could have one. It’s the cuddleness of them, the companionship. They’re really loving animals.”
His son, Blane Hoelzer, 13, who wants to be a multi media artist, said skunks are different and cool.
Gail Ceneskie from Westerville dressed her apricot skunk Alizé as “Thing.” She bought her first skunk in 1978 and currently has six skunks.
“I’ve always loved skunks,” Ceneskie said. “They have always been my favorite. That and tigers, and you’re not allowed to keep tigers.”
Alizé has a laid back personality, she said, adding she will lie down in bed and snuggle Alizé beside her, and there the little skunk will stay for hours. The first skunk was unexpected.
“I had just gotten married and my parents couldn’t say I couldn’t have one,” Ceneskie said. “And my husband and I were at a pet store and it looked at me and I said, ‘I’ve got to take that one home with me.’”