Sat 9/10 @ 10AM-5PM
Sure, you love cats and dogs, but maybe you’ve been thinking you’d like to startle and amaze your friends with a really unusual pet.
Stop right there! Deb Cipriani, the founder of Skunkhaven, wants you to think twice — and maybe three and four times — about what you’re getting into. She founded the North Ridgeville-based rescue group after finding that people frequently acquired skunks as pets and then discovered they’re a LOT of work and they couldn’t handle these mischievous, crafty animals who can get into a lot of things your dog or cat can’t. So they gave them up.
If you’d like to see these adorable critters — which are not skunks taken out of the wild but bred to be domestic animals — and learn more about them, then you will definitely want to go to the 15th Skunkfest, taking place in North Ridgeville’s South Central Park. There you will meet proud owners from all over the region showing off their usually very well-fed pets which come in a variety of colors, including apricot, brown, lavender and solid white. They’ll be glad to fill you in on what skunk ownership takes.
There will also be skunk-oriented games, people dressed in skunk costumes, and vendors selling skunk-related tchotckes. The skunks and their owners participate in a variety of competitions including Skunkfest King and Queen and Prince and Princess competitions for the owners, and costume, skunk run, best detective and most talented contests for the skunks.
Skunkfest caters to lovers of other animals too, with rescue groups aimed at those who’d like a non-skunk pet. Last year, there was a ferret rescue, a greyhound rescue, an organization with kittens for adoption, a group that works with therapy rabbits and even someone pulling a pet pig in a wagon.
Admission is a donation of an item for the shelter such as a roll of paper towels, organic pasta or wild rice, or a natural-grain cereal.