STINKY INTRUDER
Family learns not to get into a spraying contest with a skunk
Having a doggie door isn’t always convenient. Just before Halloween last year a skunk sneaked through the dog door at the Gray family’s home in Latrobe. Inside was the home’s guardian: Boone the boxer.
What followed was an hourslong battle between the furry adversaries. When family members got back from a Halloween party, they were left in teary-eyed shock at the noxious aftermath of the fight. Walls, floors, furniture and belongings had been hit with the skunk’s penetrating spray.
But the fight wasn’t over. The skunk was still inside.
Scott Gray, 39, chased it into a room and called the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which came at midnight and took the skunk. Because skunks can carry rabies, ones that come in contact with humans or pets are typically killed and tested.
The Game Commission website warns: “Releasing a skunk or a raccoon can be a risky situation. There’s a chance that you could be sprayed by the skunk, or bitten or scratched. What follows promises to be unpleasant. You’ll either have to be deodorized or anxiously await test results on the trapped animal’s brain tissue to determine if it’s rabid.”
At that point the battle was done and the humans had won. But it was a hollow victory. The Grays were forced out of their house with nothing but their Halloween costumes.
Seven months later the basement still has the faint smell of that epic battle. And the Grays haven’t gotten a cent from their insurer.
“When they said they weren’t covering us, we knew we were done,” said Amber Gray, 35. “There was no way we could live here anymore. We were homeless.”
The house now stands in its studs, loose wiring and piping giving it the air of a construction site. The Grays are about $70,000 in the hole. And that’s just what’s needed to get the walls back up. It would be another $50,000 or so to replace all their furniture and other belongings.
“When you have a fire and you lose your furniture, your clothes, your kids’ clothes, you
“But they'd come home and cry because they had to get off the bus here, but they’re not coming here. [Addison] hated coming home — she wanted to be at school all the time.”
They’re still trying to get Nationwide Insurance to provide coverage, and said they could take the insurer to court.
But for now they’re just trying to get by.
“When I get a little money I try to do some work in the house,” said Mr. Gray, who works at the family business, the Nut House, a commercial and industrial equipment supplier in Latrobe. “Every cent we have or we make or we get from other people goes back to the house.”
The Grays will host a fundraiser spaghetti dinner July 8 at the A.V. Germano Hall in Derry to serve free pasta and give back to all the people who have helped them get to where they are now. They said donations are appreciated.
“If it wasn’t for our family and friends, we would have nothing and nowhere to go,” Ms. Gray said. “But we still have each other, and that’s all that matters. Everything in here is just stuff, and all you need in life is each other.”