Not only did this morning come extremely early, it came in VERY rudely! At about 2 a.m. our dog, Penny, started whining. Being the great pet-owner that I am, I crawled out of bed in my Spongebob jammy pants and t-shirt, unlocked the back door and walked outside with an eager puppy on my heels doing the “peepee dance” all the way out the door. I was standing there on the porch installing my cancer while Penny ran down the stairs and marked a couple of spots. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A big “black cat” was standing on the front stoop of one of the two large sheds in my backyard. When my lovely dog started sprinting across the yard, I realized she’d seen it, too! She’d already decided that it didn’t belong there, so she ran off to get rid of it. I started yelling for her to come back; she kept darting towards the “cat.” As she approaches, the “cat” takes off with Penny in full pursuit! And then it happened. As the “cat” ducked into the hole Penny has dug under the other shed, Penny yelped and began dragging her face across the yard while running back in my direction. Once on the porch, I can see that she has her eyes closed as tightly as she can get them and she’s “foaming” at the mouth. FULL PANIC!!! You see, Penny belongs to my 9 year old daughter and this loss would be DEVASTATING to her. I’d heard something about tomato sauce and skunks in the past, so that was my first instinct. I gathered all the strength I had and held my breath. I grabbed the dog that now appeared to be having some sort of seizure and ran through the house to the bathroom. I shoved her in the shower (we don’t have a bathtub in the house right now), turned on the water and shut the door. I ran to my room and grabbed my phone and called the only emergency number I know—my poor mother. As I was dialing the phone, I pulled all the tomato sauce I could find and a can opener. Then I went running back to the bathroom to lather my now terrified puppy in red liquid. Mom kept reassuring me that Penny would be alright, but I kept scrubbing anyway. About halfway through her “shower,” she stopped drooling all over and her eyes were open. Somewhere in my panic, I woke Nick. After leaving the dog in the shower covered in tomato sauce for about 15 minutes, I rinsed her and lathered her up with some “smell good” soap HOPING to get rid of that rancid smell. I dried her off and released her into the house. It was then that I realized, I had used the last of our air freshener a couple of days ago, I began searching frantically for something to cover the horrid scent that now fills my home! I’ve now tried all the carpet fresh in our house (even though I DESPISE carpet powders), all the candles I could round up and all of ANYTHING with a scent of some sort, to no avail. Any suggestions on removing that smell would be GREATLY appreciated.
Lesson learned: DON’T let the dog out at 2 in the morning! When skunks attack, DON’T bring the animal INTO the house!!
Lesson learned: DON’T let the dog out at 2 in the morning! When skunks attack, DON’T bring the animal INTO the house!!
