My friend Natalie has a coffee shop and just got her beer and wine license, so I added a hint at that. I wanted to take a negative and make it good PR for my friend. It got published and became the subject of the editorial cartoon with a skunk talking to his therapist. Okay, so here is the story I submitted to the local paper that they fact checked and edited:
A skunk-at-the-garden-party situation in Petaluma recently reminded locals of the endless unpredictability of local wildlife.
The incident, disrupting an otherwise calm morning on Friday, Aug. 22 just outside
Petaluma’s Grand Central Cafe, began with a woman screaming.
“Oh, God! Now what?” thought Natalie Vinueza, co-owner of the riverside coffee and community destination.
“A skunk! A skunk! A skunk!” the woman shrieked.
Vinueza jumped to her feet, summoned her husband and business partner, Juan Carlos, and together they ran outside.
Although they had smelled a skunk earlier that morning, Vinueza said, the couple was surprised at what they saw: The woman, while throwing away a coffee cup, had startled a skunk inside one of the garbage cans and gotten sprayed. Some other people were in the line of fire and also were sprayed.
The unlucky customers were there that morning for a singalong led by local music teachers
Tyler Johnson and Julia Cramer, who host a free preschool music hour as part of a grant from Play It Forward Music Foundation. On this particular Friday, they were performing to a crowd of no less than 30 kids and their caregivers.
Once the hullabaloo had died down, Juan Carlos placed the lid over the can and kept the skunk there until animal control could arrive a few minutes later. They safely retrieved the animal and removed it from the premises.
Vinueza said they removed the skunk-infused garbage can.
With the incident finally over, the Vinuezas said they went back to their cafe, grabbed a Henhouse Saison Ale, sat down in one of their Adirondack chairs, and looked over at the river, wondering, “What else does the day have in store?”
The normally skunk-free
Play it Forward Preschool Music Hour takes place every Friday from 10-11 a.m. at Grand Central Cafe,
226 Weller St., Petaluma.
It is a very strong odour I can't stand. The smell is reflected in the Eastern Slavic (not Polish) name of the bush: smorodina (literally: something that stinks).
