5:30 am Monday morning. It stinks!

No, seriously, it really did. I was pouring my second cup of coffee yesterday morning and I heard Michael letting the dogs out as he came downstairs. I took my coffee and went outside to supervise my little trouble makers… just in time to see a menacing little creature crawl under the front gate and start his way up the driveway.

Luckily, the dogs were in the back. I grabbed a shovel and made sure I got the little devil’s attention before approaching and heading him off… trying to prevent a Monday morning catastrophe. He stopped in his tracks…. tail went up… he turned and trotted back the direction he came from. No smell. I saw him disappear across the street and was quite proud that I had averted a disastrous start to the week.

Or so I thought.

Michael came out with his coffee and I proceeded to tell him how I’d saved the day.

Almost.

Before I could finish my story, Cash and Roxie started barking… and sure enough… that little vagabond was back. He’d gone around the block, down the side of our property and was now trapped between the fence and electric rolling gate… tail up… dogs at full attention.

We were able to get them away from the skunk pretty quickly. Probably because they hadn’t had their morning biscuit yet, let alone breakfast. Yes, they got sprayed — but not as bad as usual. I wiped their faces with paper towels to see how much skunk oil they had contracted and luckily it wasn’t a direct hit. Still, we get the pleasure of two walking room odorizers that will disperse their lovely fragrance, constantly, for several weeks.

The dogs got sprayed at least a half dozen times last year. A winter confrontation is pretty rare though. As annoying as it is, we’ve gotten used to it — and honestly, the smell isn’t that bad when you’re accustomed to it. The kicker is that it always happens at the most inopportune times– like right before work or when we’re planning to have guests over.

We’ve tried all the home remedies and over the counter products and found the best solution is liquid Dawn. It cuts the oil and eliminates the most smell. Tomato juice and vinegar work to some extent but usually just make the dogs smell like a skunk salad. Cash usually gets sprayed the most and its really hard to get all the oil from his face, leaving us with weeks of skunk kisses until it wears off.

End of story: I could have let it ruin my day. I have to admit, I did think to myself, “Great start to the week“, but I wasn’t going to let it rule my mood. Aside from being a little annoying, I wasn’t going to play victim and went on to have a pretty productive day.

Winter Sunset. The view of downtown Elgin from our yard.