Just a quick reminder to people:
If your dog gets nailed by a skunk (as Suka did - TWICE! - today), there's a simple household-product fix:
1 Quart 3% (USP) hydrogen peroxide
1/4 Cup baking soda (NOT baking powder!)
2 Tablespoons liquid dish detergent
Up to 1 Quart tepid water.
Mix ingredients in a plastic container - Not metal
Scrub deep into the dog's coat, taking care to avoid the eyes.
Let stand for five minutes
Rinse out.
DON'T store any left-over solution!
May cause mild coat bleaching. May need to repeat once if the oils have had a chance to really soak in, or your dog was particularly persistent in bothering the skunk (Suka!).
More details, do a quick Google on "Paul Krebaum Skunk" and you'll find the inventor's home page. Yeah, there are commercial products, but this one always works, and it's inexpensive.
Suka may find herself a strawberry blonde in the AM. :-p Oh, and Lin is going to be getting some extra training on 1) How To Tell When The Dog Is About To Screw Up, and 2) How To Recall A Demented Skunk Botherer Before You Have A Problem - Again.
Showing posts with label Skunks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skunks. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Summer's here...
The grass is thick, and growing too fast. Rain, rain, more rain, then sun... Muddy paws on my trousers, wet dog to greet me, chores, gardening, and maintenance to distract me... My days are full.
Soon, the children will be out of school - Lin isn't old enough, quite, to leave home all day. I actually trust her, and she's certainly mature enough, but Qestions Would Be Asked, and I really don't want to deal with that drama. So, I'm pawning her off on my music-teaching psuedo-sister. Whom also happens to be Lin's voice and piano coach. Pricy, but more than worth it! The girl needs a bit of social polish anyway, and my sister is just the one to gently help her down that path. :-) That leaves Ian, and he'll be easy - The Child Development Center here at work runs a full-day summer camp.
OK, kids handled. What about Suka? I'm changing my hours to stagger my wife's schedule a bit with mine, that'll keep Suka from being alone too long. I've found that she's no fear whatsoever of the lawn equipment, though she's not terribly fond of the noise. So, I let her supervise my yard work, which she's content to do at a distance. The front yard not being fenced, she watches from the porch on a 30' lead, and is happy, though she does on occasion rearrange the slate border of the center island with the lead. In the back yard, she normally hangs out in the garage, and observes from the shade of the doorway. I'll need a child's wading pool for later, when things get hot - Some place in which for her to lay down, get wet, and cool off.
We're continuing our trips downtown, and she's really shaping up - her winter or more-or-less isolation is sloughing off, and her 'public' face is coming out to shine.
I've plugged the gaps in the fences where Suka has managed to slip through, and no longer need to watch her quite so closely. Likewise, I've sealed off the undersides of the shed, so the skunks are less likely to camp in our yard, though there's always the off chance of one wandering through. Now, if I could only stop the squirrels from chewing up the roof of the shed...
Gonna be a busy summer. I'll try and get some more photos, when I've got the initial rush of tasks handled.
Soon, the children will be out of school - Lin isn't old enough, quite, to leave home all day. I actually trust her, and she's certainly mature enough, but Qestions Would Be Asked, and I really don't want to deal with that drama. So, I'm pawning her off on my music-teaching psuedo-sister. Whom also happens to be Lin's voice and piano coach. Pricy, but more than worth it! The girl needs a bit of social polish anyway, and my sister is just the one to gently help her down that path. :-) That leaves Ian, and he'll be easy - The Child Development Center here at work runs a full-day summer camp.
OK, kids handled. What about Suka? I'm changing my hours to stagger my wife's schedule a bit with mine, that'll keep Suka from being alone too long. I've found that she's no fear whatsoever of the lawn equipment, though she's not terribly fond of the noise. So, I let her supervise my yard work, which she's content to do at a distance. The front yard not being fenced, she watches from the porch on a 30' lead, and is happy, though she does on occasion rearrange the slate border of the center island with the lead. In the back yard, she normally hangs out in the garage, and observes from the shade of the doorway. I'll need a child's wading pool for later, when things get hot - Some place in which for her to lay down, get wet, and cool off.
We're continuing our trips downtown, and she's really shaping up - her winter or more-or-less isolation is sloughing off, and her 'public' face is coming out to shine.
I've plugged the gaps in the fences where Suka has managed to slip through, and no longer need to watch her quite so closely. Likewise, I've sealed off the undersides of the shed, so the skunks are less likely to camp in our yard, though there's always the off chance of one wandering through. Now, if I could only stop the squirrels from chewing up the roof of the shed...
Gonna be a busy summer. I'll try and get some more photos, when I've got the initial rush of tasks handled.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Skunk Catastrophe; Averted
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
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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