Skunk gives couple wake-up call

PALM BAY, Fla., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A Florida couple received an early wake-up call when they heard something moving around under their bed and discovered a skunk, officials said.

"I shined it under the bed and there was one of them catpoles," Odell Wadlington, of Palm Bay, said in a News 13, Orlando, report. "It was crazy."

"Polecat" is slang for skunk. Odell called James Dean, a local wildlife trapper, to remove the animal.

"Went inside, they had the bedroom door closed," Dean said. "They said the last place they saw it was under the bed."

Dean found the skunk behind some furniture and he was sprayed before he could put the squirrel-sized animal in a container.

Dean said small animals could get into a home through dryer vents.

"People are running their dryers," Dean said. "It's putting off heat, so skunks know to come there."

Wadlington went to work Thursday but was sent home.

"I had that brand on me," he said of the odor. "He (the boss) didn't want to deal with that."

Dean was sent home from his part-time job as well.

"He said 'Dude, can't have you here,'" Dean said.