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It seems the worst thing we can plan to do is nothing. It’s rare we get the option to even entertain such a notion, and even when we do, it never works. One great example is our coon attack last year. Another is this past Sunday, we were closing up for the night with plans of wasting away the evening on the couch with Netflix.

I took Basil with me to check the coon trap in the hog barn. It’s been empty for weeks, but I’m always worried the night I don’t check it something will get stuck and have to spend unnecessary time in the trap. Before we get to the trap, Basil takes off like a cannon, scaling the rock cliff by the dairy barn and leaps up into the woods. I yelled after him (in vain, of course), and watched him disappear.

Luckily Kate heard me calling him and got the beeper. It shocks and vibrates as well, but the beep is always enough. I saw him run back toward the house and thought all was well… till I smelled it.

“I smell skunk,” I said

“Yep,” Kate said.

I watched as Basil dragged his head across the ground and knew he’d taken some skunk ass to the face…wonderful. If you’ve only experienced skunk smell on the road, you haven’t smelled skunk smell. When it’s “fresh,” it has the olfactory allure of burnt hair and decomp – it makes you long for the smell of a stale Pepe Le Pew. However, we’ve been down this road before and we have a good solution.

Skunk Smell Removal:

-¼ cup baking soda

-A decent amount of dawn soap

-A whole qt of hydrogen peroxide

CAREFULLY, rub the solution on (so you don’t get it in the pet’s eyes) and let it sit for a bit. Then CAREFULLY wash it off with warm water and towel-dry your dog.

image

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you get the idea.

This solution does a great job of neutralizing the odor and removing the oil, which is why dogs often smell for so long after an attack. I know others say Tomato Juice and Maple syrup but my assumption is that makes a bigger, smellier mess than you already had.