Pet of unusual stripe reunited with owner

Cheech, a descented domestic skunk, is found only blocks from home after a few days in the wild.

By BRADY DENNIS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 15, 2002

TAMPA -- Imagine the agony of coming home to find your pet skunk missing. Better yet, just ask 24-year-old Brian Lancaster.

His gray and white skunk, Cheech, had been with him only three weeks, free to roam around a Fig Street home that Lancaster was renovating. On Friday afternoon, a handyman left the back door open, and the critter escaped into the untamed wilderness of South Tampa.

Cheech was defenseless.

Like many pet skunks, he was bred in captivity. He had been "descented" at birth. He had lived inside all five months of his life, taking baths and using a litter box.

When Lancaster realized his skunk was missing Saturday morning, he immediately plastered 35 signs on phone polls around his neighborhood:

Lost Skunk

Won't Spray!

Very Friendly!

But he wasn't optimistic.

"I thought he was gone," said Lancaster, a real estate investor. "He had no way of protecting himself. I thought there was no chance I'd find him. I thought there was no hope."

After a couple of dead-end phone calls and a fruitless search of the neighborhood, Lancaster's spirits sank.

Then came a phone call from a man named Angel, who lived up to his name. Angel, who declined to comment, found Cheech only a couple of blocks from home.

He called Lancaster, and skunk and owner were reunited by Saturday evening.

Cheech was a little dirty from his venture into nature, but otherwise he came through healthy.

"I could tell he was really tired," Lancaster said. "I got him to the house and he just crashed out."

Lancaster said he found Cheech through a classified ad. The owner was moving to take a job in Kuwait but had grown so fond of the skunk, he questioned Lancaster for almost an hour to make sure the pet would be in good hands.

The owner also asked if he could visit Cheech whenever he passed through town.

Lancaster said having a skunk for a pet isn't as strange as it may sound.

"They're cool little critters," he said. "They are real affectionate. He's never bitten anybody. He walks around the house just sniffing stuff."

There's even an American Domestic Skunk Association, whose vice president, Mary Kaye Ashley, lives in Clearwater.

According to the association, domestic skunks can live 8 to 12 years. They weigh 7 to 8 pounds and feed on vegetables, fruits, and occasionally raw meat and cooked grains.

Most love to explore and can open doors and drawers. They like to sleep in dark protected places with lots of bedding. They can even be leash-trained if it's started when they're young.

Lancaster said he was "so happy" to bring Cheech home again. But one order of business remains before things are entirely back to normal: Cheech still needs a bath.

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