Our cat Ethylene spends quite a bit of her time sitting on fence posts, and we often jokingly call her a "pole cat." In some areas, the term pole cat refers to a skunk. Why?
Answer:
The term "polecat" is used for quite a few members of the weasel family. In Europe, it is used for the wild version of the domesticated ferret. There is some debate over how ferrets came to be called polecats. One speculation is that it comes from the French word poule, which means chicken, because they are notorious for raiding chicken farms. Another speculation is that it comes from the French word puant, which means stinking.
Either way, when European settlers came to America and smelled skunks, they said that it smelled like a polecat. The name stuck, and many Americans still call skunks polecats.
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