A family of four skunks decided to make the visiting dugout at Dodger Stadium their home

It started innocently enough, when there was a curious sighting after the Dodgers lost to the Cardinals on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium -- a skunk, roaming around on the warning track, just minding his own business:

Forgot to tweet this an hour ago but there was a skunk on the RF warning track after the game. Seemed appropriate pic.twitter.com/kDFNUIMes4

- Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 5, 2015

We chuckled, we joked, we forgot all about it. But oh, how naive we were. 

When the Cardinals took the field for pregame warmup, they were greeted with not one, not two, but a family of four skunks, all stuck under one of the photography wells in the visiting dugout.

Almost half of the dugout was roped off, as many Cardinals opted to hang around and watch Animal Control do its work. (John Lackey, for one, briefly considered getting them out of there himself before being talked out of it, because John Lackey is not the man you want to cross.)

Getting tense. #SkunkWatch pic.twitter.com/33gnzOFONV

- Jim Hayes (@TheCatOnFox) June 5, 2015

Eventually, though, the skunks would emerge victorious in this standoff for the ages.

 "The four little guys appeared to have wedged themselves in the very back of the photo well," one of the exterminators explained. "It doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon."

Some traps and bait (apparently, skunk bait = fresh salmon, so, #themoreyouknow) were set, but, after determining that the skunks didn't pose any immediate threat, Animal Control decided it would be best to leave them alone until after the game. Animal kingdom: 1, humanity: 0. 

MLB.com Real-Time Correspondent Grayson Alexander provided the reporting and photos for this story.