ST. PETER - Dominique and Bethany Durbin are kicking up a bit of a stink over skunks.

At issue is their beloved striped skunk Penelope, who was a gift when the Durbins were married in July. Dominique's brother, Dylan, the skunk-giver, could have gone with a coffee maker for the newlyweds but thought a skunk would be more satisfying. He also knew that his new sister-in-law had a bit of a history with skunks, having once rescued some abandoned skunk babies.

"My mom always said I had a knack for taking in and helping homeless things," said Bethany Durbin, 23. "I used to get up every two hours at night for a week to feed them on kitten milk formula I bought at Wal-Mart."

But the Durbins' attempt to give Penelope (nickname Nellie) a home has run into something that doesn't respond to kitten formula - Illinois law. State rules forbid the keeping of skunks in any shape or form or even assisting abandoned wild skunk babies, a situation previously unbeknownst to the happy couple, who live in a partly subterranean house 15 miles southeast of Vandalia.

The Durbins have launched a campaign to change the law and say they only found out about the uncompromising legal situation when they called up a local veterinarian to have the then 4-month-old Nellie spayed. "The vet told us he couldn't treat her," recalls Dominique Durbin, 31, who goes by Dom.

"In Illinois, any law about a skunk involves a dead skunk."

What drives all this is not distaste for the skunk's infamous scent defense system but fear of rabies. Skunks are a known transmitter for the disease, and wild ones always are suspect. Dom Durbin says he and his wife understand this but point out their skunk, which has been de-scented after a quick-snip surgical procedure, comes from a domestic skunk farm in Indiana with no exposure to wild critters, rabid or otherwise.

They say skunks such as Nellie, which tame well and use litter boxes, are kept as indoor house pets and dine with the family, eating pretty much anything, although Nellie isn't keen on green beans much. Right now, because of fears of midnight door knocks and seizure, she is being looked after at an undisclosed location in another state while her owners wage their campaign to rewrite the law.

They've got other pets - such as Fidget the ferret - but Fidget has oily skin that tends towards pungency, has to be kept in a cage and is just not the same. The Durbins want Nellie to come home and plan to politely get up the noses of Illinois lawmakers until someone takes notice enough to introduce a bill that will give domesticated skunks house room.

The couple have written dozens of lawmakers and received replies ranging from encouraging to indifferent, with no legislative action yet. "One week, we will get excited because it looks like something is going on, and then the next week someone will call and just shoot it down," says Bethany Durbin. "It's kind of like that a lot."

Public support is somewhat more fragrantly in favor on their Web site - skunklaw.com - and Dom Durbin says there may be bigger issues at work here. He points to increasingly restrictive laws in some areas controlling any kind of pet people want to keep at home.

"Now you may never want a pet skunk yourself," he says, "But as an American, you should support my privilege or right to have one. Otherwise, in a few years, you might be calling and asking me to change the name of skunklaw.com to puppylaw.com. The biggest part of our staying free has always been tolerating each other's rights," he adds with a disarming smile.

"So surely one goofball in Illinois can get pet skunks legalized?"

Tony Reid can be reached at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.