Attack of the Skunk, and Other Tales
Last night I was talking to some people online and reading about something inconsequential when I heard a commotion in the kitchen. I paused to listen better and then my mom came in my room—the smell! My dog, who was supposed to be resting in the house following his surgery, had ran out the back door and attacked a skunk. The skunk retaliated.
I frantically Googled for skunk attack information. The consensus directed us to mix hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Tomato sauce had mixed reviews but the most authorative sounding site (judged so by the use of technical terms in its condemnation of tomato sauce) said the sauce would not work. Unfortunately, due to Buddy’s surgery, we didn’t want to get him really wet. Thankfully, he did not appear to have been hit in the face, if at all. I think he just got a little overspray. My mom decided to use a wet rag to just wipe the surface of his fur. We had brought him to the bathroom for his cleaning and I spent ample time at the window catching breaths of fresh air. The smell from skunk spray, among its many qualities, causes nausea and burns your eyes. I can only imagine what the direct spray can do. Actually, from what I read, it can cause anemia in your pet; it destroys red blood cells. Buddy has a history of anemia.
While this cleaning went on, an even more comedic episode continued outside. The beleaguered skunk refused to leave our yard. My dad, through a combination of a water hose and somewhat less innocuous device, managed to help the skunk shuffle off this mortal coil. The windows and back door of my house are now wide open. Our large bottle of off-brand Febreze can do only so much. And so concludes this tale, but as the title promises, there is yet another!
As I just mentioned, the back door of my house is open; the front door, however, is not. First, a little background. Our front door has a retracting screen. There is a plastic frame around the doorway and the screen stays rolled inside one side. It is attached to a vertical bar that pulls across and locks into the other side. The bar runs along a track at the top and bottom. It’s very cool because when it’s not being used, it is completely out of the way; you don’t have to open the screen and the door. And now my second tale:
Yesterday while I was at work, my parents and Buddy were relaxing in the house. Since it was a nice day, they had the door open and the screen pulled across. An unsuspecting woman jogged past our house with her large dog. Buddy, seeing this and apparently forgetting about the screen, lunged forth. He pulled the aforementioned bar out of its track and left it dangling. With my mom in hot pursuit, he ran up to the jogger. After a few tense and embarassing seconds, my mom managed to get Buddy to come back to the house, and the jogger continued on her way. The screen has been fixed but now we can’t trust Buddy to not jump through it whenever he gets the urge.