Police officer drops everything to help these adorable baby skunks in need of a rescue
Too stinkin' cute.

Officer Caitlin Russell poses with a rescued baby skunk
Officers at the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts had a surprise rescue mission on their hands when they happened upon two adorable baby skunks.

The two tiny kits (like, you-could-fit-each-in-one-hand kind of tiny) had somehow gotten separated from their family. In an interview with The Dodo, Officer Caitlin Russell shared she had been heading back toward her patrol car after an unrelated incident when she saw the orphaned pair, clearly lost.
Russell was initially worried that she might get sprayed. Rightfully so, as skunks can spray as young as 3 weeks old … and let’s just say their control doesn’t automatically kick in. But still, her empathy was already triggered, and outweighed her fear.
“I saw they were alone. I couldn’t walk away,” Russell told The Dodo.
Russell’s instincts were correct—skunk kits are especially defenseless without their mother. Born both blind and deaf, they are completely reliant on Mama Skunk until they are about 3 weeks old. Though these little guys had their eyes open, they were still clearly in need of help.
And I mean, who could just abandon these sweet faces?

Its little feets!
Any worry Russell had soon dissipated as she picked up the skunk babes, who were “totally fine” with her holding them. Not to mention “so stinkin’ cute,” she added.
Russell and another officer (whose name has yet to be released) kept the skunklings safe while they awaited Animal Control.

So far, no spray.
In a plot twist worthy of a Hallmark movie, Animal Control had rescued two other orphaned skunks earlier the same day, thought to be from the same litter. The family was reunited at a wildlife rehab facility and eventually will be released into the wild as one big happy, stinky unit. Yay.
The Cambridge Police Department shared the story in a Facebook post along with the caption, “You never know who you’ll come across while working a shift.”
Though skunks traditionally have somewhat unsavory reputations, that mindset is slowly starting to change. Nowadays skunks are less seen as pests and more so viewed as valuable lawnkeepers by preying on rodents (confession: I was today years old when I learned that skunks aren’t herbivores).
More and more people even enjoy them as pets. According to PBS, 17 states currently allow people to own domesticated skunks, including: Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. PBS added that these pet skunks have undergone a controversial surgical procedure to remove their scent glands, which has been criticized by many as unfair treatment. Sort of like how declawing your cat strips it of its natural defenses. This can be particularly dangerous if Mr. Not-So-Stinky finds his way outdoors.
Still, it’s a good thing that these fetid creatures are getting more love. They definitely deserve it. At Upworthy, we are always on the lookout for feel-good, heartwarming animal stories. This one simply reeks of it.
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- A woman risks getting sprayed by a skunk to save its life in a nail-biting 30-second clip - Upworthy ›






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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.