Thursday, January 18, 2007

There's no place like home...


She is beautiful, fluffy, and full of character... and longs to tap her little feet together three times and magically be in another place called home!

Dorothy the skunk just wants to go back home... not to Kansas, but to California! She is stuck in Toronto after hitching a ride from California in the back of a truck after she fell asleep in a large rubber pipe that was loaded onto a big rig. The skunk travelled nearly 5,000 kilometres in five days.
A trucking employee noticed the animal's pointy black face peering out of the pipe while unloading the truck in Mississauga.
"He poked his head out for a second, then scurried back in again," said Mike Steadman, who discovered the skunk.
It took two days to coax the animal out of the pipe and into a trap baited with cat food. The skunk was dehydrated but was otherwise unharmed, said Nathalie Karvonen, the Toronto Wildlife Centre's executive director.
Now, all Dorothy the skunk wants is to go back to where she came from... but remember without proper papers to cross the border (no skunkie passport?), she is technically an illegal alien! Oh, beauocratic red tape... poor Dorothy! Since the Wildlife Centre doesn't want to euthanize the perfectly healthy animal, they've asked for help from the public to give it a ride back. A plane is out of the question: airlines are normally helpful when it comes to returning accidentally transported animals, but thus far have been reluctant because of the... well potential skunkie smell. Anyone want to volunteer to chauffeur dear Dorothy home?

*Update: Someone in the US has finally stepped forward to take Dorothy the skunk back to Cali! Afterall, in First Nations culture, the skunk symbolises perseverance and determination.... and sweet soul, tis true! There really is no place like home... (;

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