June 30th 2005 7:07 pm
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June 30th. 5:00 pm. While on our regular walk along the river in Flaming Geyser State Park, Mike suddenly, urgently said: "Skunk! Pull the dogs back!". There was a cute little polecat in the trail and he had almost stepped on it. We said, "Whew. Good thing Mike was in the lead!" Which is unusual. Blaize is almost always at point. I said "hmm... little wood pussy all alone? Wonder where mom and her siblings are?"

We found out. We walked a long way back and around to avoid any skunks, then relaxed and the next thing you know, Blaize and Cruiser pounced on something in the tall grass. Something they do a lot. Well, in a 2nd I saw it was *not* a mouse, that it was at least a rabbit, then Cruiser was giving it a shake. Then he was diving on the ground and furiously rubbing his face in the grass. Then the smell came wafting. He'd pounced another skunk! Fortunately, I think it was also a small skunk so the perfume was not too horrible.

I pulled him into the river and sluiced him and threw water into his mouth and ran my eyedrops over his eyes. It took us forever to get back to the car because he spent most of the time rolling and rubbing in the grass. Fortunately, we had brought the PU and Mike rode in the back with him on the way home. We washed him with baby shampoo and that seems to have done pretty well. But the smell is in the house and wafts through on a regular basis. Coming into the house from the basement, or worse, from outside is a bit of a shock, too.

I'll have to try something else to get it off my hands! Yuck.