What kind of wild animals have you seen while camping?

[UPNORT]

Sitting up chatting quite late. A large raccoon came down a tall elm tree next to us. On the ground it looked at us, walked in between all of us and headed in the direction of the dumpsters.

[muckinfuss]

The morning after we arrived in Pigeon Forge, I was stepping out the door with coffee at zero dark thirty when I noticed a skunk at the garbage container I set out the night before....empty. Quickly went right back in. So here I am this past Sunday, also at zero dark thirty, stepping out with my coffee to gin up energy since we were leaving in one hour. Much to my surprise, our whippet blasted past me and right under the next rig over.....to that skunk!

Whippets are hounds, that operate like a Ferrari, originally bred for killing. Trust me, they are good at it without any training..

So I suspect, she wasn't going there to say hi. She got skunked. Fortunately, either she was quick enough to move back as that tail went up or the skunk was more likely a juvenile, but she got her front paws a little taste.

So here's what you do with a skunked dog the day you are leaving.....you keep them in the back seat on blankets, pillows whatever you have to keep that stink off the leather. You will throw that stuff away when you get home. We had a ten hour drive with her all stunk up. I'm thankful today that it was only her paws. I didn't feel that way Sunday.

We have since washed her down with the peroxide/blue dawn/bicarb mix and she's now allowed out of the mud room....as if nothing happened. But boy were we all miserable on the drive and all day Monday until we could un-stink her.

[JFlightRisk]

When you're young and clueless, don't have any tomato juice to bathe them with (because someone told you it works), so you improvise with spaghetti sauce, since it's basically the same...right? All it does is waste a jar of spaghetti sauce.

[Retired mountain folk]

We’ve had bears, deer, deer mules, Buffalo, elk, moose, skunks, dogs, cats, birds, (others not listed blow) squirrels, chipmunks, mice, rats, woodpeckers, crows, ravens, seagulls, beavers, fish, raccoons, just to name a few. Oh, and people. Hehehe

[ARoamer]

Most memorable-

Yellowstone, typical traffic stopped for wildlife, many out of vehicles watching momma grizzly with cub foraging directly 100 yards up a very steep hill. Momma flips a basketball sized rock which heads downhill quickly bouncing higher and higher, and flies over the road at 5' above vehicles and panicked spectators. That area of road was cleared instantly!

[colby]

Years ago when we were still in the pop-up, we had a rule, last one leaving the campfire took the garbage from the add-a-room and put it in the front of the TV on the floor on the driver's side so that it could be dropped off the next day in the garbage receptacle. This one night, my DW was hanging by the fire later, I went to bed, and she made a mental decision NOT to put the garbage away. About 3am, I woke to noise in the add-a-room, I jiggled the canvas a little bit and then a bit of smell hit me. I stopped moving and just waited. After about 30 minutes, the need for a bio-break hit me, and I cautiously and slowly ventured outside. Everything was clear. Being a bit dopey from missing some sleep, I didn't grab the TV keys, but instead grabbed the garbage and deposited it at the far edge of the campsite away from the pop-up. Off to the washroom I went, cautiously came back and went back to sleep.

About an hour later, I am woken up by more noise in the campground, there in the middle of campsite is the biggest skunk standing guard over the garbage bag with its feast of salad and chicken leftovers. It's standing guard with tail raised at the coyote that is dodging in and out trying to get at the garbage bag. They had shifted close to the dining tent and all I was doing was praying that the skunk didn't spray all over the entire site.

I finally gave up and went back to sleep, resigned to whatever fate we got handed.

In the morning, it wasn't bad. I cleaned up the carnage and got rid of the garbage, the dining tent was unscathed; however, the add-a-room and ground rugs had been hit. We did the Dawn, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda; however, that didn't clean everything up (and somehow, I ended up doing all of the scrubbing...). The next day was moving day, so we stopped off at a Pet Store and got some Skunk Off and at the next site, I laid everything out (again me...) and scrubbed the stink out. All good for the rest of the trip and now the story gets funnier every time we bring it up.