"As welcome as a skunk at a lawn party!"

Today, after church, both Darren and I had our own agenda planned out.  He was going to mow the lawn and I was going to paint the frame work for my "craft/gift closet".  Here was the scenario...

Twins were napping.
Tyson and I were in the garage painting.
Darren headed to the backyard to get on his riding lawn mower.

I heard the lawn mower turn on and turn off almost immediately.  I thought NOTHING of it until I heard Darren running up the hill, from our backyard, repeating over and over,

"Oh my gosh Kristin.  Oh my gosh Kristin.  Oh my gosh Kristin!!!!"  Darren can be a little exaggerated about things, but from the sound of his voice, I knew something was wrong.  My initial thought was he was having a heart attack.  Shew!! Glad that wasn't the case.  As soon as he made it back to the garage, I looked at his hands and his feet.  My second guess was he ran over his own hand or foot with the lawn mower. WRONG AGAIN.  

I said, "What's wrong?"  Sorta laughing, but also in a complete state of shock, Darren exclaims, "I started my lawn mower and immediately a SKUNK popped out.  His guts are everywhere and the smell is BEYOND intense."

Apparently, a skunk was sleeping living underneath our riding lawn mower.  When Darren turned the lawn mower on, the blades "spit him out" immediately.  Darren said, "It was so creepy.  All of the sudden the eyes of a dead skunk were starring at me."  

Tyson and I hopped up and proceeded to go see the proof. The smell was 1,000 times worse than when you just get a whiff of a skunk's scent in the air.  It instantly forced Tyson and myself to fall to the ground and we began gagging and almost vomited. I wish I could explain the intensity behind the smell. It hit us like a ton of bricks.  

We called animal control, but apparently they only deal with domestic animals.  So, Darren was forced to come face-to-face, for the second time, with this skunk.  He eventually picked it up with a shovel and disposed of it, but it took some time, "guts" (no pun intended), and nose plugs to be able to accomplish this task. I am not kidding you when I say, I believe the skunk smell is still in my lungs.  It's all I can smell, taste, and think about.  UGH... let me just let the photos speak truth and give an exact depiction of what we experienced today!

Who do you feel sorry for?  Darren or the skunk?

I saw this quote and thought it was perfect for this post.  I also think it sums up the final moments of this skunks life!  

"As welcome as a skunk at a lawn party!"  

Darren contimplates what to do.

"The skunk!"

Darren is hunched over because he had his shirt over his nose,
 To block some of the horrific scent.

The flies were on this skunk within seconds of it's death.

CREEEEEEEPY!  See the strand of GUTS hanging out?!?!?!?!

GROSSSSSSSSS!

At this point, we just had to laugh.
Well, I did cry a little from the gagging.

This was seriously the grossest thing I have ever experienced.
The ENTIRE neighborhood suffered the repercussions.  

I know this is ridiculously GROSS, 
but I just couldn't HELP taking a picture of it.
If you zoom in really, really, really close... which we did....
You can see what he had for breakfast this morning.  
A WORM!