THUNDER BAY — Jack Lamers knew the risk, but didn't have to think too long before trying to help a skunk out of a serious predicament.
Early Monday morning, his wife tipped off the Current River resident as she left home to run an errand, texting him about a skunk that had its head stuck in a glass jar.
When he saw the message and her request that he remove the jar, Lamers initially thought "nope," but quickly went outside to investigate further.
Two doors away, he found the animal struggling on the sidewalk.
"It was dropping its head because it was getting tired. You could hear the 'tink, tink, tink' " when the jar hit the concrete, he said.
"My wife's distraught and worried about the skunk. It's just kind of wandering around with the jar on its head. I tried to get close enough to grab the jar, but realized that's way too close... because it was a clear jar and it could see me. So it kept twitching its tail and I thought 'oh no, I'm going to get sprayed.' "
After giving the situation more thought, Lamers ran back to the house and grabbed a garden hoe.
He estimates that it took about 15 minutes from start to finish before he got close enough to pin the jar to the ground with the hoe, which allowed the skunk to extricate itself from the container.
"He pulled his head out, looked left, looked right, looked up. We locked eyes, because I still had the jar pinned down. And I ran. He ran around somebody's shed and sprayed there. You could smell it a few minutes later when the wind took it."
Lamers said that until yesterday he wasn't aware he had the ability to run so fast.
"This was the first animal rescue for me. I'm just glad we got it down, because I was worried. At first I couldn't figure out how to get the jar off, and then it came to me. Pin the jar on the ground and then the animal will do all the work."
On social media, he's getting lots of compliments for coming to the skunk's rescue.