Skunked!

We've escaped a good skunking for a few years now.

But on Wednesday night I came home to that too-familiar-awful scent as I walked up the front steps. When I opened the door, it was worse.

I didn't have time to deal with the crisis (it was clearly Tess, not Cowboy, who had been hit) as I had to dash off to cover a night meeting.

When I finished work a few hours later, I discovered that Tess had apparently rubbed herself ALL OVER my bed, making matters a whole lot worse.

It was so bad I wound up spending the night on the sofa after stripping everything off the bed to throw into the wash and opening a big window in the bedroom to air the room out. The dogs were locked in the kitchen.

By morning, the bedroom smelled a lot better. All the bedding also seemed to be fresh after a couple of washings using not just detergent but a healthy portion of baking soda. I sprinkled baking soda on the bare mattress as the skunk scent also had reached that level.

I had a busy schedule the next day at work so I called Kimberley Foley from Dino's Pet Shoppe and arranged to drop Tess off with her groomer in the morning for a strong bath with Nature's Miracle Skunk Remover.

The dog smells much better. So does the house.

The only thing that's still in doubt is a relatively new wool blanket I'd bought late last year for our extra-cold nights. The dry cleaners said they may not be able to get the skunk scent completely out of that. But they're giving it a try. We'll know in a week.

So what's up with all the skunks lately? We've seen several in the neighborhood on our walks recently. I guess I associate them with summer months.

Is it the winter heat we've been getting? Or is this some kind of a usual skunk "season"?