Skunked – October 25,2021

Life in the country is beautiful and peaceful, and we feel incredibly lucky here. Today, though, was a knot in the Persian rug of our idyllic life.

The dogs (inspired by Mistletoe) have been getting up earlier and earlier to go out, and then come in for breakfast. Today was insane. The dogs went out at 2:30 AM. I was obliviously asleep, and Harry got up with them, and fed them. After they ate, at 2:45 AM, the dogs went out to do their business. Three of them attended to matters in the front of the house. Cedar rushed around to the back porch to get a varmint. That varmint was a skunk.

Poor Cedar was sprayed full in the face. Harry let her in, and she was gagging and blinded and frantic and ran upstairs before Harry got hold of her and woke me up. Together, we drenched her in Skunk Off (a new bottle was on hand, luckily), then bathed her and bathed her, and bathed her again. We locked her in the mud room with a bed to sleep on (a washable bed), and went back to sleep.

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When we woke up, we checked the internet for methods to deal with the stink of skunk in the house. We opened all the windows, and we were lucky that the wind was blowing gales, so it had blown away the outside stench. But the house is a miasma.

Following internet suggestions, we set a pot of vinegar boiling on the stove, using a fan to blow it through the house. So, instead of skunk, the house began to reek of vinegar instead. We developed olfactory fatigue and could no longer smell much of anything. But, when we went outside and returned to the house, we were again overcome by the reek of skunk (underlaid by vinegar).

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Poor Cedar was exhausted by the whole experience! She, herself, wasn’t too stinky, though we did have to throw out her collar, and we had to boil her metal tags in vinegar to get rid of the smell.

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Life continued. Harry went off to St. Louis county for lunch with a friend. I went to Charlie’s for some supplies. On the trip, I realized I was pretty malodorous, and even the truck was smelling of skunk. I guess it was my shoes, which had been in the mudroom.

The internet tells us the skunk smell will last three weeks, but we have washed the floor in a mixture of vinegar, baking soda and Dawn dish liquid, which seems to have helped. Then again, it may just be habituation.

The horses were unconcerned with our redolent troubles and enjoyed the overcast autumn day. The rain missed us last night, but so did the tornadoes. Again, we were lucky.

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On the back porch, the birds enjoyed suet and sunflower chips, which will definitely be brought into the house every evening from now on. I had meant to bring in the bird food yesterday and forgot, so this ordeal is really my own fault. I enticed the skunk onto the porch with my carelessness.

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I wandered back and forth from barn to house, and there are plenty of beautiful sights.

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Tim, the electrician from last week, stopped by. He immediately noticed we had been skunked, before he even walked through the door. He brought us some of his delicious deer sausage processed by Oberle in Ste. Genevieve. In one of those weird, small world synchronicities, Tim was from Ste. Genevieve and knew Ann and Jack Roth. He was a kid when they had their veterinary practice there. Ann was my best friend since I was ten, and she and her husband were killed in an automobile crash in 1988. Anyway, not only did he bring us some of his venison, he also brought Harry two Clint Courtney baseball cards! And he provided a skunk odor elimination recipe while he was here.

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Finally, Licorice is in the Halloween spirit as a spooky black cat.

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Stay safe, stay well, stay away from skunks! Peace.