This past Friday evening, just after we were done cleaning up the dishes, I went out to work on cleaning up the garage a bit. We don't get much free time and especially on the weekend, it's very rare. I was pretty excited just go out and turn the radio on and work on some stuff around the house. I was out in the garage with the big garage door open behind me. Dave was standing in the entrance to the house with his head poked out so we could talk.
As we are standing there, Tucker decides he is going quietly sneak out the door. I notice this and say to Dave that we ought to get him on a leash because he hasn't been trained yet to come when we call and he barely knows his name yet. Of course, according to my hubby I was over reacting and Dave let me know that it would be "just fine". He was going to be taking them on a walk and was on his way out anyways. I am not convinced that this is ok and go on to further explain why this is not a good idea.
I say "what if the neighbor's dog is out and Tucker decides to run over there." As I say this I motion my arm and point out the big open garage door. This is when we both see a little skunk walk/waddle his way right in front of the open door. I turn back to grab Tucker as his head and ears perk up and he is off. He goes trotting on over like he is ready to play with this nice little black and white kitty.
I start to yell for him like a crazy person and then remember that yelling won't help when you are trying to get a dog to listen to you. Dave is yelling to him also and this starts the total chaos. Then we both start calling him using those super happy let's have a party voices. He looks up and around like whoever this Tucker guy is, boy his parents sure want him inside and pays us no attention and just keeps on following the skunk. I keep running forward and backward, forward and backward because I want to grab Tucker, but I don't want to get sprayed. Dave takes off after them and just as he rounds the corner near the camper I hear him say "OOOOOOOHHHH NOOOOOOOOO".
Poor Tucker has taken a direct hit to the eye and starts running into stuff. The smell is immediately so strong we are practically gagging. We are still yelling and the kids are staring out the door in horror. Dave is trying to get Tucker on a leash while holding his shirt over his nose to pretend that helps with the smell. He takes Tucker on a leash to the end of the driveway and stands while I go on the internet to figure out what to do. Tatum is in the house repeatedly saying that it smells like skunk. Thanks Tatum....
I find a homemade solution that is supposed to work way better than just tomato juice according to lots of different people.
1 liter hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
tsp of dish soap
latex gloves
So I'm off to the store to get the supplies and I grab double of what I need plus a few big cans of tomato juice just in case.
When I get home, Dave and Tucker are still standing in the driveway and Dave has his shirt covering his nose. I turn the radio on in the garage and we go to work scrubbing the dog. It was HORRIBLE!!!! The smell of skunk from a direct hit is one of the worst smells ever. It took just over 2 hours of scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing to get most of the smell out. To make this even more fun, I had to keep going to the door and ask Syd to get stuff for me since I didn't want to go in the house. She would hobble away on her crutches and then back to the door. She eventually ditched the crutches and started hopping on one foot through the house.
As our last step, we did dump a can of tomato juice on him just to make sure the smell was covered up and he thought that was very tasty and a good time to shake all that excess water/tomato juice off at us. Tucker was all tuckered out from the ordeal and Dave and I were soaking wet and smelly. I look around the garage and instead of cleaning it, we have made a much bigger mess. There are empty containers and rags all over the place. Everything is at least a little wet and the smell is still just lingering. The house even smelled when I went inside. Yuck.
We are just hoping that he has learned his lesson and isn't it fun to think the skunk is still out there and we have two other dogs that haven't learned the lesson....oh boy!
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