Skunk you!!

Well the McKinnon family is three for four with skunk encounters. In recent weeks, Morgan and Tanner were sprayed twice at my parent’s ranch. The first was a direct hit which occurred as they ran into the horse barn with my mom's dog Haley. All three dogs learned a valuable lesson that night. Several hours later after four home remedies and a trip to the grooming salon, they finally smelled decent enough to let back into the house. Not long after that (back at the ranch) they took another hit - this time they were only "misted" but still stunk to high heaven.

Then last night our cat Gracie took a direct hit in the face. Gracie's got a bad habit of trying to be the toughest cat on the block and is intent on defending her territory. There's no doubt that she provoked this black "cat" with a white stripe down it's back.



Either way, Ross found her in the back yard foaming at the mouth with her eyes swollen shut. My sweet husband is such a trooper, b/c at midnight last night he rushed Gracie to the emergency animal vet. The vet flushed her eyes and checked her cornea's for damage caused by a potential chemical burn. Several hours and $150 later they returned home and the de-skunking began. For the record - tomato juice does not de-skunk an animal. The best combination (and even this doesn't work 100%) is hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and Dawn liquid detergent.

Now poor Ross, working on only three hours of sleep has to make it through a full day of work. To make things worse, most of his co-workers are out on vacation or on family leave. So my sweet sleep deprived husband is left to cover for his team. If there was anything I could do to help him - I would. At least he can rest assured that dinner and a cold beer will be ready and waiting when he get's home.

BTW - Elvis is the only one of our four animals who hasn't yet had the pleasure of meeting a skunk face-to-face. Let's hope he'll learn from his fellow animal friends and stay far, far away.