“Dad, isn’t the skunk going to be lonely without Lily?” Maggie Rose asked softly.
“I don’t think so,” Dad said. “Skunks are solitary animals. They live alone. Sometimes when it’s very cold, they’ll find a burrow with other skunks inside and huddle up, but that’s pretty rare. Most of the time they’re by themselves. It’s natural for them.”
The skunk ate a little more. Then she moved over to the water dish and drank, too.
She lifted up her head with water dripping off her muzzle. I licked it off for her. Outside of the cage, Nose-Hair Man whistled softly.
“So they’re not like the prairie dogs,” Maggie Rose said.
“That’s right,” Dad agreed. “A prairie dog wouldn’t be happy all by itself. They need to be in a group.”
“A coterie,” Maggie Rose said.
“You got it. But skunks are different.”
Then the skunk turned her back on me and went over to one end of the hollow log. She poked her nose inside it. Then, slowly, she climbed inside.
I peeked into the hole in the log. At first all I could see was the skunk’s rump. But then there was a rustling noise and the skunk turned herself around. Her little black face with her shiny eyes peered out at me.
The skunk sniffed my nose. I pulled my head back out and looked at Maggie Rose. Stinkerbelle had decided to play Hide-in-a-Log, and I’d done Find-the-Skunk. But Stinkerbelle didn’t want to come out or play anything else. She seemed content to curl up in her dark, quiet spot.
Now what?
There was much I did not understand. But I did see that I was in a dog kennel with a skunk, and that my girl and her family and a man with nose hair were all on the other side of the fence.
“Want to come out, Lily?” Maggie Rose asked softly.
Nose-Hair opened the gate, and I decided it was time for me to go back to my girl.
Stinkerbelle did not follow. When I went through the open gate, it was shut behind me. What were we doing? What about my skunk friend? Wasn’t she coming back to Work with us?
Maggie Rose knelt and looked deeply into my eyes. “We have to go now, Lily. You did a good job taking care of Stinkerbelle the skunk, but this is where she lives now. We have to say goodbye.”
I wagged. I didn’t understand much, but I’d heard my friend’s name, and I thought that the quiet, solemn way my girl was gazing at me delivered a clear message. When she patted her leg, I fell in step behind her. We were leaving Stinkerbelle behind.
“Craig! Bryan! Time to go!” Mom called.
When we reached the car and Maggie Rose slid into her seat, I hesitated, gazing back at the dog kennel. For just a moment, I thought I saw my friend’s nose come out for one last look, but I could not be sure.
I jumped into my girl’s lap and thought about all that had just happened. I was starting to understand that I would meet a lot of animals at Work. I would make friends with them and play with them. Some of them, like Casey, would stay. And some would go to new families or new places to live.
That was what the skunk was doing. The small house was her new place to live.
It was a good home. The skunk had food to eat and water to drink and a cozy place to nap. She didn’t have anyone to play with, but she actually didn’t really like playing with other animals, not even a dog—and there is no creature more fun to play with than a dog.
I would miss Stinkerbelle. But the skunk was in her new home, and I was with my girl.
We were both where we were supposed to be.
MORE ABOUT SKUNKS
Skunks are nocturnal. They are active at night and sleep during the day.
Skunks will eat almost anything, but their favorite food is insects and grubs. They will also eat small rodents, frogs, worms, birds’ eggs, berries, mushrooms, bees, and wasps.
Skunks sometimes hunt venomous snakes. The venom does not hurt them.
Stinkerbelle is a striped skunk. The Latin name for this animal is Mephitis mephitis, which basically means “stinky stinky.”
A group of skunks is called a surfeit.
Skunks usually make their dens in hollow logs or trees, brush piles, or inside the burrows of other animals. Sometimes they move in under porches or into abandoned buildings.
Skunks will spray only if they feel cornered or think that their babies are being threatened. You can usually stop a skunk from spraying by backing away and leaving it alone.
Skunks will warn before spraying by stamping their front feet, growling, spitting, and shaking their tails. The spotted skunk does a warning “dance” that looks like a handstand, in which it stands on its front feet and lifts its back legs into the air.
Skunks can spray up to ten or twelve feet. Their spray can be smelled a mile away.
If your pet gets sprayed by a skunk, keep it outside if possible. Don’t wash your pet with tomato juice; that won’t do anything to get rid of the smell. Pet stores sell special shampoos that can help get skunk spray out of fur. You can also use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, maybe with a little dish soap added. Keep this mixture away from your pet’s eyes and scrub and rinse as well as you can. The smell will fade in a few days.
READ ON FOR A SNEAK PEEK AT
LILY TO THE RESCUE:
DOG DOG GOOSE, COMING SOON
FROM STARSCAPE
I am a dog, and my name is Lily. I have a girl, and her name is Maggie Rose.
Today Maggie Rose put me on a leash. That meant I was going someplace exciting!
I trotted on my leash beside Maggie Rose. Craig walked with us. He is Maggie Rose’s much older brother, and from where I stand, he looks very tall. Maggie Rose has another brother named Bryan, but he is not as tall, and he was not walking with us today.
My job when I am walking with Maggie Rose is to look for things that she might not notice, such as a squirrel who needs to be chased, or bushes where dogs have lifted their legs.
“Know what kind of ice cream cone you want, Maggie Rose?” Craig asked while I was busy sniffing one of those bushes.
“Strawberry, because it’s pink. Pink’s my favorite color,” Maggie replied.
“I thought you liked vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on it,” Craig objected.
Maggie Rose frowned. “That was last year, when I was in second grade. I’m a third-grader now, so I like strawberry.”
Craig nodded. “Makes sense.”
A car drove past us on the street. A dog had his head out the window, and he barked at me. I knew what he was trying to tell me: “I’m in the car and you’re not! I’m in the car and you’re not!”
He kept barking until the car turned a corner. Some dogs are like that. They start barking and then they just don’t stop, even if they have forgotten why they were barking in the first place. I am a well-behaved dog, and I do not do such things.
We walked a little more, and then Craig went inside a building while I stayed outside with Maggie Rose. In a little while, Craig was back. He was carrying an ice cream cone in each hand, which I thought was a wonderful thing to do!
They sat at a table, and I did Sit. I am extremely good at Sit. I was sure that when Maggie Rose noticed what an incredible Sit I was doing, I would get some of that ice cream. Nothing else would even make sense.
But then a loud, deep voice startled us all. “Go away!” a man shouted.
We all jumped. I looked over my shoulder. There was a parking lot behind us, and a man was standing at the edge of it, looking angrily into a little stretch of trees and bushes. “Go away!” he shouted again.
“Whoa,” Craig said. “It’s Mr. Swanson! You know, he lives two houses down.” He raised his voice a little. “What’s going on, Mr. Swanson?”
Mr. Swanson turned around to look at us. He walked up to our table and pointed one thumb over his shoulder. “Hi, kids. See the fox?”
Craig shook his head. “What fox?” said Maggie Rose.
Mr. Swanson pointed into the trees. “There. Right there. See it?”
We all looked into the woods. I lifted my nose, and I caught a scent that was new to me. It was like a male dog, but different—wilder and more fierce. I pulled on my leash a little, so that Maggie Rose would let me go and meet this new animal. We could play together!
I am very good at playing with other animals. I often go to a place called Work and play with all the animals there. Work is where Mom spends most of her time helping animals. She calls Work “the rescue.”
Maggie Rose twitched. “I see it! Lily, do you see it? See the fox?”
That was a new word to me—“fox.” It must be the name of the animal.
The fox was crouched behind a bush, so I could only catch a glimpse of short fur and bright eyes and ears that stood up in stiff triangles. He stared at us hard.
“He’s here for the eggs,” Mr. Swanson said.
“What eggs?” Maggie Rose asked.
“Come on, I’ll show you.”
Mr. Swanson took us toward a big wooden box in the middle of the parking lot. It had some bushes and flowers growing inside it.
“A goose laid some eggs right in this planter,” Mr. Swanson said. “But a couple of days ago, some men were here fixing potholes in the parking lot, and I guess the noise scared her. She flew away and never came back.”
“Oh no,” said Maggie Rose.
When we reached the wooden box, Maggie Rose looked into it. She gasped.
Craig peered over her shoulder. “Whoa, look at that!”
“Well, now,” Mr. Swanson said. “That’s remarkable!”
I put my front feet on the edge of the wooden box so that I could see inside. There was something moving in there!
Actually, there were a lot of somethings. They were small and fuzzy, like the kittens I play with at Work sometimes. But they also had beaks, like my friend Casey the crow. (Casey spent some time at Work because Mom needed to help his wing, so we got to know each other really well.) They huddled together in a group making tiny peeping noises. Broken eggshells were all around them.
“The eggs hatched!” exclaimed Maggie Rose. “They’re so cute!”
“They’re cute, all right,” Craig said. He didn’t sound as happy as Maggie Rose did. “But where’s their mom?”
ALSO BY W. BRUCE CAMERON
Bailey’s Story
Bella’s Story
Ellie’s Story
Lily’s Story
Max’s Story
Molly’s Story
Shelby’s Story
Toby’s Story
Lily to the Rescue
Lily to the Rescue: Two Little Piggies
Lily to the Rescue: Dog Dog Goose
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. BRUCE CAMERON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, A Dog’s Way Home, and A Dog’s Promise; the young-reader novels Bailey’s Story, Bella’s Story, Ellie’s Story, Lily’s Story, Max’s Story, Molly’s Story, Shelby’s Story, and Toby’s Story; and the chapter book series Lily to the Rescue. He lives in California. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
More About Skunks
Excerpt: Lily to the Rescue: Dog Dog Goose
Also by W. Bruce Cameron
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
LILY TO THE RESCUE: THE NOT-SO-STINKY SKUNK
Copyright © 2020 by W. Bruce Cameron
Illustrations © 2020 by Jennifer L. Meyer
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Andrew Beckett
A Starscape Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
www.tor-forge.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-23448-3 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-250-23447-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-23446-9 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250234469
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: 2020
Lily to the Rescue: The Not-So-Stinky Skunk Page 5
