Short answers, pulled from the story.
Skunks spray a mixture of organosulfur compounds as a defense against predators. The spray is accurate up to 3 meters and can be detected by the human nose up to 5.6 kilometers downwind. A skunk carries enough supply for five or six successive sprays before needing up to ten days to replenish.
Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae. Their closest relatives are the Old World stink badgers, not polecats, despite a superficial resemblance to the weasel family.
Skunk spray is composed of three low-molecular-weight thiol compounds detectable at concentrations of only 11.3 parts per billion. In 1993, the chemist Paul Krebaum developed a formula using hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid dish soap that chemically converts the odor-causing thiols into odorless acids. Tomato juice does not work; it only appears to because of olfactory fatigue.
Healthy skunks rarely bite humans, but skunk bites can transmit rabies. The Centers for Disease Control recorded 1,494 rabies cases in skunks in the United States for 2006, representing about 21.5 percent of all reported cases across species that year.
Skunks can legally be kept as pets in 17 US states. The species most commonly kept is Mephitis mephitis, the striped skunk. Their scent glands are typically removed surgically for pet ownership, a procedure that is legal in the US but banned in the UK under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
Skunks are omnivores that eat insects, larvae, grubs, rodents, frogs, snakes, birds, eggs, berries, roots, and nuts. They are also primary predators of honeybees. Most large predators such as wolves, foxes, and badgers avoid skunks; the great horned owl is the skunk's only regular predator, with researchers finding the remains of 57 striped skunks in a single nest.