Thursday, July 16, 2009

Lucy, Don't Play With the Black & White Cat!


Real Estate in this area has really picked up, and I am very busy all of a sudden. This week I haven't been getting home until 8 p.m. after 10-hour days. No complaints! Just tired.

So when Paul called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that the mouse Lucy, the Jack Russell Terror, has been trying to dig out from under the dog-house duplex in their kennel was not a mouse at all but a little skunk, I really thought about NOT going home.

Lucy's been going nuts out there over the last few weeks digging, digging, digging and chewing the wooden pallet the dog houses sit on. We just figured it was a mouse or a chipmunk. When Paul started to pull out the old pallet to replace it with a newer, plastic one, he found a nice little nest of hay and a juvenile skunk.

Of course, Lucy was at his elbow ready to drag it out by its neck. Pepe Le Pew had other ideas. Little feet start to stamp and Lucy got a face full. Paul grabbed Lucy and headed for the house and the little bottle of Skunk Off. He called me to warn me the house and yard were still pretty stinky and Lucy was a little less stinky. He thought I might need to give her another dose of the Skunk Off when I got home.

When I opened the door at 8 p.m. it was bad. Paul was out to a town meeting and all the dogs were confined to the kitchen with the worst of the stink. How does one little animal make such a smell? What was God thinking when he created that little bugger? Well, I was much too tired to deal with it at that time so I figured maybe it would just go away overnight. Wrong!

So this morning at 5:30 a.m. I got up, went online to find that natural recipe (I don't have much faith in the Skunk Off) mixed up a batch and stuck her in the sink for a treatment. Fortunately Lucy is only 14# so she's pretty easy to control and can be bathed in the kitchen sink. After the bath, I took her outside to shake off and the little shit headed right for the kennel! Slow learner? NO, just a Jack Russell Terrier. Fortunately the door was shut and I'm assuming Pepe Le Pew was snug in his little bed out of reach.

I don't know what we're going to do. Lucy is a relentless hunter and won't quit until the skunk is gone one way or another. I think it's time for the Havahart trap and for Pepe to be relocated. That's going to be an adventure.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share the recipe for the natural stink remover. We've used it on Rosey, too, and it works pretty well. Better than the store-bought stuff if you ask me. Here it is:


In a bucket, mix:

1 quart of FRESH hydrogen peroxide (available at your local drugstore or grocery store in the health care aisle)
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon liquid soap

The mixture will bubble. Thoroughly wet the victim in this mixture, taking care to keep it out of the eyes. Be Careful! Peroxide burns terribly if you get it into the dog's eyes. Wash the dog with the mixture as if it were shampoo while it is bubbling. Leave it on for 5 minutes. Rinse the dog and repeat. Be careful not to contaminate the rinse water.

The soap breaks down the oil in which the odor is suspended, and the hydrogen peroxide and baking soda neutralize the scent. Do not premix the solution or store this potion in a bottle (the bubbling would cause it to explode).

Hopefully you'll never need it!



Image from Google Images


13 comments:

Michele said...

I'd never heard of the solution. Thanks for passing it along.

Sandy said...

M, it DOES work but you have to reapply it a couple times. And the problem I ran into is that she got sprayed in the muzzle and I couldn't really chance getting the solution into her eyes so I couldn't apply it all that well to her face. She's smelling much nicer finally.

Ginger said...

I heard tomato sauce works too, though that may be an old wives tale (read joke). The mess would be horrific!

Sorry about the smell..

mommakin said...

Oh man! I hope I never need that! Good luck!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Thanks for the information. Sorry about your stink.

Kim Lehnhoff said...

If you live in a residential type neighborhood (instead of in the country), perhaps Animal Control could help you "relocate" the skunk family?

Shauna said...

Thanks for the tip. Hope I never need it!

kayerj said...

My dad was a fish and game biologist. He would capture and remove skunks from people's homes. When I was little we had six little civit cats for pets. Of course, he had removed their stink pouch.

Sultan said...

Catching the small skunk sounds like an epic challenge.

Sandy said...

Loach, The skunk decided to relocate himself when we opened the door to the kennel. We had shut him in during the day to keep the dogs away and I’m sure he didn’t like being trapped in there. Happy ending for all.

Girl Tornado said...

Thanks for the recipe -- it's been quite awhile since Ringo tangled with a skunk, 2 yrs to be exact. I'm hoping he learned a lesson and that's why it hasn't happened since. A girl can hope. :)

Wander to the Wayside said...

We used this formula when I worked at a vet's office. Had two huge labs brought in one day for us to de-skunk, and I was the only one on duty to do it! You can well imagine the mess, not to mention the number of bottles of peroxide and boxes of baking soda I had to use...and had to do it again the next day! That was four years ago, and I can remember it as if it were yesterday. I know he was give this device for protection from it's predators, but good grief!

Unknown said...

Sandy, I think this might help move Pepe to a "better" place. I've read that once a skunk has sent his "greeting" out to the world it takes a few hours until he can do it again. Here's what you could do. (I'd never do it but you might!) Get the little stinker to squirt! Then get him in the trap or pillowcase, whichever is closest, and relocate him. Might work!

 

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