Esa mañana when Canutito came out on the portal, Grampo Caralampio was doing algo que looked muy interesante. He was setting una trampa with some bait. He was using una dead chicken como el bait as he set the trap. Canutito looked at him por un momento and then he asked: "¿Qué está haciendo, grampo?"

"Ei, ¿cómo amanecites, m'hijo?" Grampo asked.

"What does '¿cómo amanecites?' mean, grampo?" Canutito asked, rubbing his ojos.

"Literalmente it means, 'how did you dawn?' but specifically it means, 'how did you wake up this morning?' " Grampo replied. "And in answer to your first question, I am componiendo una trampa to try to catch ese skunk that is eating my chickens."

"It must be un zorrillo muy grande, grampo," Canutito said as he sat down en el portal to watch him. "Los big skunks usually have no trouble catching las gallinas inside el gallinero."

As Grampo oiled the old and rusty trap, he turned to Canutito and asked, "Did I ever tell you de mi amigo, Wally?"

"No," the little boy replied. "Who was su amigo, Wally?"

"Actually," Grampo Caralampio said, "his real name was 'Guadalupe' pero we just used to llamarle 'Wally' for short. De todas maneras, el Wally era lo que you could call un 'skunk whisperer'," he said, wiping his dedos en una garra that was lying by his hip en el portal. "El Wally had a strange gift. He could just mirar a un animal and the animal would get todo calm and mansito. Así el Wally could ride any caballo no matter how wild it might be. El Wally could just look at un perro y el perro would slink away without barking at him at all."

"Really, grampo?" Canutito asked todo excited. "Could el Wally really do esas cosas?"

"Sí," Grampo Caralampio affirmed. "El Wally came across un zorrillo un día and this skunk instead of raising his tail y spray-ándolo todo, just looked at him and kept his cola down. El Wally spoke to the zorrillo softly, telling him que he was running out of chickens to feed him y que he should go look for gallinas somewhere else. Pus, parece como que el zorrillo understood him y se fue, never to return again."

"Wow!" Canutito exclaimed. "Parece como que el Wally was un skunk whisperer just like Saint Francis." Grampo Caralampio just got busy working en la trampa so Canutito wandered away down into el jardín. He was busy trying to find some peas en las vainas to eat. Just as he came upon un bonche de alverjones and he was stuffing them into his pocket, he caught sight de un zorrillo that was at the other end of the garden eating corn. He was immediately reminded del amigo Wally y cómo he was un skunk whisperer. Canutito thought he'd try it también a ver si él también could make friends con el zorrillo.

No sooner had he gotten within 10 feet del zorrillo when el skunk raised its tail y spray-ó a Canutito. Canutito cried out todo panicked. Si de suerte que el zorrillo had only sprayed his pants leg. Grama Cuca and Grampo Caralampio heard his llorido y they came running out just as el zorrillo hurried away.

"¡Quítate esos calzones, right now!" Grama Cuca ordered. Canutito took off his pants allí dónde estaba and shivered in the morning air. "Ahora let's go give you un bath," she said. Grampo Caralampio bent down and gathered unos tomates del jardín. He was going to crush them so that Canutito could rub them all over to get rid of the smell. Canutito just cried porque lo pedió el zorrillo y se talló con los tomates as Grama burned su ropa ...