neighborhood skunk

Gabriel and Sebastian had a run in with a skunk! I let the two of them out early in the morning. I always enjoy watching their two little bottoms and black tails go bouncing out across the yard every morning. They act as though the fate of the world depends on their getting to the back corner of the fence as quickly as possible! They go bouncing out and I go back in the kitchen to get the coffee started and assemble the things for R & M’s lunches.

By the time I have the various lunch bags out and the components put on the counter so I can sit down and assemble the sandwiches, etc., the little dogs are ready to come back in. This particular morning was no different. I may have taken time to make myself a cup of coffee, but no longer. I went in to open the door for the little guys.

As soon as the first puff of wind came in I smelled the skunk and thought Oh-oh somebody ticked that skunk off. Gabriel and Sebastian came when I called them and hustled in just as they usually did. I closed the door and gave no more thought to the skunk. Not until I followed them back down the hall. At that point I decided that they were involved, somehow in ticking off the skunk.

I’ve been around dogs who have tangled with skunks and this smelled no where near as bad as those. With those dogs you couldn’t be in the same barn with them! Regardless of that Gable and Bastian were definitely skunky.

R & M noticed it when they came down, but at that hour of the morning they had no time to do anything about the situation and I certainly couldn’t! It was smelly but not the eye-burning, nose-numbing potency of a full on blast. Once I sat in the room with it for a while my nose cancelled out the smell. I decided they must have merely been down wind of the skunk but not directly in its spray radius.

I have this vision of poor old skunk trundling along back among the evergreens on the other side of the fence scuffling through the duff under the trees looking for what ever goodies he could find when Gable and Sebastian came tearing out like gang-busters and scared him silly! His first reaction was to flip his tail and spray in the direction of the disturbance. Fortunately Gable and Sebastian were quite a ways off.

When I went back n the bedroom one of the little guys had gotten pretty sick over by their bed. I didn’t connect it with the skunk spray until much later. I simply cleaned it up.

When evening came the first thing that happened was that Gabe and Baby-bastian got baths! For future reference: a cup full of hydrogen peroxide with three heaping tablespoons of baking soda and a couple hefty squirts of Dawn dish soap is effective for removing skunk smell. Although for Sebastian it took two baths.

It wasn’t until later that I connected the barfing with the skunk. Now I knew this from past experience, but of course didn't remember in good time. A good dose of skunk spray in the face will make a dog dry heave for days! When Sebastian had to have two baths, I knew that he had been the one who vomited. I also knew it because the towel I had used to scrub up the vomit residue was making my bathroom smell long after I had rinsed it out and hung it to dry.

Poor little guys. But they still tear out the door in the morning to chase that skunk off. It’s the neighborhood skunk. Rachael came in after work the other night asking if we were sure the little dogs were in because the skunk had smelled up the neighborhood again. But this time it was somebody else’s dog!