Remember that classic road-trip tune “Dead Skunk“? You know, the one with the refrain “Dead skunk in the middle of the road, stinkin’ to high heaven?”

Well, tonight we saw a live skunk in the middle of our porch. Five skunks, actually — a mama and her four babies. They’ve been living under our house for weeks, and Mama Skunk decided to move her offspring to a new home tonight.

Their presence shouldn’t have surprised us as much as it did. We knew something was living under the porch because of the hole there. I had filled it in once because I was concerned that we were being invaded by rats. But the hole was rather large and we had seen several rabbits in the neighborhood. My wife convinced me that Mr. and Mrs. Cottontail and their babies were the occupants, and we didn’t want to snuff them out.

The thought that it might be Miss Le Pue and her brood never occurred to us even after I posted this tweet on May 15: “Our basement smells like a skunk — literally. It’s not your typical basement bad odor. I wonder if a skunk ’sprayed’ outside last night.”

But we knew something was up tonight when our house guest, Todd, rushed inside, tossed his groceries on the floor and slammed the door shut behind him. He had seen a baby skunk wandering aimlessly on our driveway and was seeking shelter before Mama made an appearance.

A few minutes later, Miss Le Pue scuttled up the driveway … and right down that hole under the porch. A minute later, she appeared with a baby in her mouth and carried it somewhere up the street. We watched that scene play out three more times, including with the youngster who had found his way out of the den on his own.

Miss Le Pue came back twice more after moving the four babies. You could almost see the fear on her face as she sniffed and searched for one more. She never found it — we’re hoping she miscounted and there isn’t a stray under the house — and eventually wandered into our backyard (and hopefully out of it for good).

We tried to capture our exciting, suburban wildlife moment on film, but our digital camera couldn’t handle the poor lighting and skunk in motion. We did follow Miss Le Pue down the street, at a safe distance, on her last trip and got one shadowy, grainy shot. She’s the black blob on the sidewalk.

(I’m having trouble uploading the picture right now, and it’s pretty lousy anyway, so I’m going to bed. Maybe I’ll have better luck in the morning.)