Mike MacMillan was heading to a business meeting with Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman Monday morning when he went into Good Samaritan mode.
The manager at Sarjeant Co in Barrie was leaving his home east of Orillia when he happened upon a skunk with its head trapped in a Coke can.
"He wandered out onto the road and almost got hit by car and I couldn't see him suffer like that," said MacMillan.
"It's just a terrible way for an animal to go so I figured I'm going to get a face full of skunk stink and get that can off his head."
MacMillan pulled out his phone to record what he believed was going to be a very smelly event.
"I thought for sure he was going to spray me. It didn't even occur to me that he wouldn't. That's why I started recording it. I wanted to have something so my wife could have a good laugh after."
The pop can was full of fat — likely from barbecue drippings he suspects — and that's what attracted the black-and-white creature to investigate and then get in a pickle.
MacMillan spoke quietly while approaching the frustrated animal as it ran around in disoriented circles.
"When I got closer to him he was calmer than I thought," he recalled. "He seemed to be receptive to my voice and trying to deal with him."
When MacMillan managed to grab the can, the animal knew what to do.
"He really engaged and wanted to get that can off his head. He seemed to be looking for some way to wedge it off his face. I think he was very pleased to have me hold onto it and he shook like crazy and dislodged himself."
And then came the moment of truth. Would the freed skunk let loose on its saviour?
"We regarded each other for a couple seconds. The longest two seconds of my life. And then he went on his merry way," said MacMillan, laughing at the memory.
He has been fielding calls all day from media including The New York Post, The Washington Post and the British newspaper the London Daily Mail.
MacMillan is an animator and has had other viral videos but knew when he posted this one people would like the feel-good story.
It has almost two million views after hitting the Internet Monday at 10 a.m.
MacMillan hasn't nicknamed the skunk but people have been calling him "skunk man" and "skunk whisperer."
"I think for Halloween I'll dress up as a skunk with a Coke can on my head," he laughed.
"All joking aside, I'm really glad I got to help out the skunk because it was in a bad way. There was no way he was going to get that can off on his own."
