I have often complained when people expect their pets to be smarter than their children. I don't understand a person who gets angry with their dog or cat when they nip or bite a child that is hurting them. The children have the thumbs, make them smarter than your animals. Everyone will be happier for it.
It's along those lines that I tell what happened in early December. I knew it was bad when the snow that I woke up to was the second worst thing about the day. I have a wonderful dog named Caliope. She is a Great Dane and she is a wonderful creature full of love and pretty dang smart to boot. On this particular morning, we woke up at 5:30- I know, I know- and started our day. There was snow on the ground (yuck) and my wonderful, clever, 165 pound behemoth did not want to go outside for her morning rituals. I was calling her a sissy, tugging her out and not happy about the snow either.
When we turned the corner of my house, I saw why my dog didn't want to go outside. There was a skunk trundling through the yard, and he was in a take no prisoners sort of mood. He tagged my poor dog and me before we could get away.
So now it is 5:40 and my dog and I stink of skunk. I had a fleeting moment of wondering why that skunk wasn't holed up and hibernating already. I guess the snow surprised him as well. So I take my stinky dog (who is really cheesed with me now) straight upstairs and shut her in the bathroom. I stripped off my clothes and put them in a garbage bag outside the door. Then, I went downstairs and grabbed four quarts of tomatoes that I put up over the summer and ran them through the blender. Three quarts I put on my dog.
I will remember the look of disdain that she gave me as I smeared tomato paste into her ears for the rest of my life. After about ten minutes I rinsed her off with baking soda and water and she didn't smell very skunky anymore.
It was kind of hard to tell, however, as I was still very very skunky. My turn in the shower found me dumping the last quart of tomatoes over me and waiting for their magic to work. Finally, shivering, I rinsed off. After following up with shampoo, etc. I put on non- skunk sprayed clothes and wrapped up everything that we had touched and put it in the trash.
My bathroom looked like I had butchered a pig. My dog still wasn't speaking to me and my cats were still hissing when I walked in the room. What a great way to start the day, huh?
So today my dog has started to forgive me. My cats still won't sit on my lap, and I'm okay with that. I learned one other valuable lesson (besides trusting my dog when she doesn't want to go out) and that is not to ask my friends if I smell like skunk.
If I do smell like skunk (which I didn't) they tell me I do. I had to resort to asking an acquaintance. Thanks, friends. So listen when your dog is trying to tell you something and watch out for skunks all year long. You'll thank me later!
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