Skunks in My Life

I’ve had a number of encounters with skunks in my life.

The real ones, not just old Pepe LePeau.

I saw one ramble past our new house this morning and shrieked. My patient husband looked at me. “Did you want me to do something about it?”

“No. I’m just pointing out they’re here.” Surely he would get the connection between a fat skunk wandering past the side of the house where we’ve been hearing mysterious scratching for the last couple months?

We had most of our skunk run-ins while living in the Washington  woods.

One rainy cub scout day, we adjourned to the garage to work on a project. Halfway through the meeting, I tossed something into the lid-less trash can.

It rocked.

I peered inside, grabbed the lid and clamped it down.

More rocking, and then a familiar, bitter, rancid, horrible odor we all recognized.

“Let me see the skunk!” cried one of the scouts.

I dragged the trash can a distance from the house.

Since my husband was on a business trip (of course!), my truck-owning neighbor took it  far away to release.

“That was a strange skunk,” he said later. “It wouldn’t leave the trash can, so I had to throw rocks at the can before it finally climbed out.”

Sigh.

Spotted skunks standing on their head to spray? 

“I’ve seen skunks come out of the garage,” my eight-year-old exclaimed. “It  had spots and stood on its head.”

Spots? Standing on its head? We consulted an expert in those pre-Internet days: Ranger Rick magazine.

Sure enough. We had western spotted skunks skulking around our property. When agitated, they stand on their heads and spray.

It’s a good thing my son didn’t stick around to learn more, up close and personal, shall we say.

A skunk in the house?

One night my husband jumped out of bed shouting. “There’s a skunk in the house!”

He stalked about,  flicking on lights and opening windows as he followed the pungent aroma downstairs to the door leading to the garage.

My husband reached into the garage and hit the garage door opener. 

Our black cat zoomed into the house, bringing the scent with her.

Obviously, she had met the skunk up close and personal. My husband caught her and she spent the night outside.

The next morning, I bathed her in tomato juice (I used two cans on a ten pound cat. I did it twice)  followed by Johnson’s baby shampoo. She was not happy.

We stashed potpourri all over the house, but it still took a week for the smell to diminish!

Several months later when my husband rushed me to the hospital to give birth, he chose to leave the garage door up as we zoomed away.

A skunk followed us out into the warm sunshine.

He was standing on his head.

It was better I didn’t know.

What have you used to get rid of skunk scent from a pet?

 We’ve had fair luck with our large dog by pouring coke over his coat and rubbing it in. In theory the acid in the cola drink breaks down the smell. I then washed her several times with deskunking dog shampoo and dried her off. She still spent most of the day outside, but at least she didn’t smell quite so bad.

Or, maybe that way didn’t work so well because of the stickiness of the Coke–though she would lick it off. Another means was mixing hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing soap. That helped.

Both remedies are discussed here.

With the cat, I used tomato juice because I could contain and control the cat better in the sink. Putting tomato juice on the dog resulted in her shaking her coat and getting tomato juice all over the bathroom, leaving it like a scene from Psycho . . .

 Tweetables

Adventures with skunks–the spotted kind Click to Tweet

How about Coke and Hydrogen Peroxide to deskunk a dog? Click to Tweet

Spotted skunks standing on their head to spray? Click to Tweet