Suka has a routine - Don't all dogs? - that requires that I let her out into the pre-dawn air for her first 'business' call of the day. Letting her out is the second thing I do after waking, only following behind pulling my wellies & coat on. It's a nice time of the day, even if I am a bit muzzy-headed with sleep, and even if it's bitterly cold - The neighborhood is quiet, the Rude Dogs are still sleeping, no one is hammering at me for crisis deliverables, and I can stand there, watch Suka as she sniffs her way about the yard, and just be. It's a zen moment - a chance to open myself to the posibilities of the day.
When let into the yard, Suka patrols the boundaries, nose to the grass, checking out all the new scents that have accumulated from the night previous. She first jets straight to the back fence, to see if the Rude Dogs on the other side are available - I don't let her fence run, but she still wants to check attendance. Then she'll hook to the right, pass behind the shed, turn and follow the chainlink of the neighbor's fenceline, then cross the yard to my left, hook right again, and follow the fence back under the large pine in the corner. Only after she's done the patrol will she do her business, and run back for the house.
This morning, we awoke to a hard frost; Winter may be over, but it's leaving behind calling cards. Suka started her patrol, and as she passed behind the shed, I saw something waddle out from under the shed, headed the opposite direction... Something low, long, fluffy, and white. No - Not a cat. A skunk. A BIG skunk. Yeah, I know - Traditionally, skunks are BLACK and white. Not always, though - We've got some cocker spaniel-sized skunks around here that are predominantly white or cream, and this was one of them. My zen moment vanished in a puff of horror; Suka was within feet of one of the largest skunks I've ever seen, and she's a fiend for interesting scents...
'Left' went the skunk... 'Right' went Suka... 'OMG' went I...
Left, left, left... Right, right, right... OMGOMGOMGOMG...
Suka hooked right at the corner... The skunk vanished under the pine... Suka started to cross back to the left... I was frozen, afraid that any action might precipitate the event I feared...
Then I saw the pale bundle of fur waddling through the neighbors yard; Safe! A heartbeat later, Suka saw it too, and charged the fence, but it was already too late for her to ruin my day; The skunk was out of reach.
Sometimes, you get exactly what you pray for.
For those of you whome don't know about it, there IS an effective remedy for 'skunked' dogs; invented by research chemist Paul Krebaum, it uses common household products, and it works. There may be some slight bleaching, but, in my opinion at least, a pale dog is MUCH better than a skunked dog. I keep the ingredients in the house, just to be on the safe side. Thankfully, I didn't need it today. However, for your reference:
http://home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/
http://home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/sk00001.htm
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4 comments:
Wow! You and Suka are lucky. Most skunks don't run away. They have a good line of defense and use it instead.
I've never seen a white or cream skunk before. How weird!
We've had two dogs get into it with skunks, both while camping. We left the dog food out by accident and the skunk was hungry. lol!
Even with all those remedies the smell lingered albeit slightly, in the dogs' fur for several weeks.
We just got back from a road trip and were surprised at how many road kill skunks we saw. Must be breeding season.
~Lisa
Oh, yeah - Very lucky, and don't I know it!
I can only guess that, since Suka didn't notice and confront the skunk directly, that it decided to just carry on with it's own morning routine. Certainly, it didn't seem in the slightest bit hurried in its departure!
We get a limited number of roadkill skunks nearby - We've got a fair bit of good habitat, but food sources may be limited; people don't feed their animals outside much here, and we're zoned to exclude any realistic animal husbandry or agriculture. If people had large gardens or numerous chickens, things would be different...
ACK! Skunk stink is awful. I had ONE encounter with dogs/skunks. The skunk sprayed at the dogs, got them and the back of the house. It was - awful. It was at night and even the neighbor woke up out of a deep sleep due to the overwhelming odor.
I did the h.peroxide thing, it helped but I did it about 4X too. For 6 months or so after that, there was a lingering odor if the dogs got damp.
Yeah, well, not even the Krebaum recipe is 100% - Skunks have been working on their defensive weaponry for a long, long time. We're still playing catch-up. ;-)
I'm one of those luck few people not strongly affected by skunk musk, but I know I'm in the distinct minority, and know who badly others are affected by it. Needless to say, I'm *very* happy that Suka didn't make that particular 'connection.'
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