Outdoors - That smell

   Our grandson, Zane stopped by on Saturday morning. I was busily drinking coffee on the porch while my wife was in her recliner inside. When Zane opened his car door, his two terriers came flying out, happy to see me. I opened the door of the house to let my wife know Zane was here, and the two little dogs zoomed past me, over the arm of the recliner and onto my wife. They we even happier to see her. When we were able to curb their enthusiasm a bit, we took them back outside.

   The two dogs are half Jag terrier and half Patterdale terrier. Both breeds are avid hunters with unlimited amounts of energy. The combination of the two breeds ensures dogs that are people friendly and determined hunters. The pups exchanged pleasantries with us and Billy, the poodle and disappeared. Their usual routine is to hunt around the house and nearby woods for a while before coming back to check on Zane. We spent some time talking on the porch and Zane needed to leave to run some errands in town. He called the dogs, but they chose to ignore him. He said he would stop back on his way home and pick them up, who by then should be worn down enough to come when called.

   Zane started up the driveway leaving Billy and me on the porch when my wife went back inside. Zane was almost to the top of the hill when the hunting pups came running out of the timber, down the hill and onto the porch. Zane saw them and drove back to the house. One pup was foaming at the mouth and pawing at his face. The other was rolling around on the nearby lawn. Both smelled very intensely of skunk. Zane parked his Jeep and I yelled, “You have a problem…”. Before I could finish the sentence, “your dogs have been sprayed by a skunk,” he opened his door and the little hunters jumped into his lap. I did not need to finish my sentence as his problem was abundantly obvious at that point. My wife opened the door to see what the commotion was. Instantly, she knew, grabbed Billie, and went back inside.

     The little dogs were miserable. I got some dog shampoo out of the garage while Zane turned on the outside faucet. We lathered them both thoroughly and rinsed them off. About then, my wife came out with the skunk scent removal mixture. It is just a combination of dishwashing liquid and peroxide but has served us well over the years at times like this. Most dogs we have owned have at some time or another, tried their luck with a skunk. Some more than once. We had one dog, Hooch, a combination Rottweiler/Mastiff, who enjoyed killing skunks more than anything. The biggest drawback to this is he always insisted on showing me his trophy after a successful hunt. It is impossible to outrun a very proud and happy dog. He had his own bottles of soap and peroxide and sometimes I used them on myself when he insisted I take his skunk.

   After two bathes on one and three on the other, the smell of skunk was barely noticeable. By the time they rolled in the grass to get dry, they were tolerable. Zane’s clothes and my hands smelled worse than the dogs. Before they had a chance to go on another hunt or go find their latest victim, Zane took them home and put them in their pen. I have not heard if they got to spend the night in the house or if they have just enough aroma about them to let them air out for a day or two.