Virginia Real : Occasionally Life Stinks…

July 14, 2014

The majority of time, I’d say life is pretty good. Things go bouncing along with no problems or issues. Then there are times like this past weekend. Charming and I attended a birthday party for my Aunt Kat on Saturday afternoon. The party was great. We brushed elbows with lots of people, lots of food, and spent lots of time of catching up with family members that we hadn’t seen in a while.

Since my aunt and I live in the same neighborhood, several of her closest neighbors attended the birthday party as well. During the party, as I was busily chatting with some of my family, I heard snippets of conversations that Charming was having with neighbors. My ears caught the words “skunk” and “babies” and “last night”. Hmmmmm…now any conversation with all three of those words in the same sentence cannot be a good thing, but I let them go through one ear and out the other as I was heavily into my own conversation.

Yesterday, Charming refreshed my memory about the conversations that he’d had with the neighbors at the part. Apparently, several different neighbors had told him during several different conversations that a family of skunks has moved into our neighborhood. The skunks (a Momma and two babies…apparently she’s a single mother since no other adult skunk was observed) had been seen two or three times during the night-time hours. During one sighting, the mother and babes were seen on someone’s carport.

Well, Charming let Max The Wonder Dog out into the yard last night to take care of business before bedtime. We normally stand at the door and wait for Max to do his thing and then he comes directly back into the house. Well, Charming stepped away from the door to walk into his office to get something. I (sitting in my recliner) was working on a crochet project when I got a whiff of something that smelled like a combination of coffee and burning rubber. Oh, nooooooooooooo!

I threw my crochet project into the air and shouted to Charming, “I smell a skunk!!!!” He came charging out of his office, flew out the door and into the yard yelling for Max. I followed meekly, dreading what I would see and hear. At this point, Charming has our beautiful 81-pound lab mix by the collar, wrestling him toward the house. Max can be a powerhouse when he has a small animal in his so-called sight. (He has very poor eyesight.) He will race across our yard in an attempt to catch rabbits, squirrels, or cats, but then will come to a screeching halt and just sniff them. (We have a chain-link fence that allows for a quick get away by the small animals as they scamper under the fence. We also have an enormous stacked woodpile that is up off the ground that offers safety to the little critters.) Max has never harmed an animal…it’s the thrill of the chase that he absolutely loves.

But I’m getting off topic. On his way to the bathroom, dragging Max unceremoniously behind him, Charming muttered, “I think he got hit with skunk spray.” As soon as Charming moved back the shower curtain, Max jumped into the tub. Not only does he like a bath, I think he actually knew that he smelled awful. I quickly ran to get the dish detergent, as I remembered that was part of a “recipe” given to me by our vet years ago. Having owned several dogs in my lifetime (and at least two of them had the experience of being sprayed by a skunk), I have to say that this recipe works better than anything I have tried.

This morning, Max is looking a little sheepish from his late-night experience, but he surely smells a lot better.

De-Skunking Recipe

1 quart hydrogen peroxide

1 teaspoon mild dish washing detergent (like Ivory or something clear)

¼ cup baking soda

NOTE: It’s best to use this recipe outside near the garden hose, if the incident occurs during the daylight hours. If it happens at night, then you have no real choice but to stink up your house…just dump the dog straight into the tub, without letting him stop anywhere on his way to the bathtub.

Immediately after mixing the ingredients together, use a sponge to dab the solution onto the dog’s fur while his fur is still dry. (Skunk spray is somewhat oily so you want the dish detergent to break this oil down before you rinse it away with water.) Be sure to go heavy on the solution around the dog’s neck, ears, and snout…avoid the dog’s eyes…you can wash around the eyes with plain water. (Dogs are curious and usually stick their silly faces right up to the skunk so most of it ends up in the head area.)

Leave the solution on the dog for 5 – 10 minutes and then rinse thoroughly.

This recipe should get rid of most of smell, which makes it much easier to continue to love and be close to your dog.