The skunk

The guilty look

Yesterday morning when Ellis, my daughter's family golden retriever, went out for his morning trip to the back yard, he had a confrontation with a skunk. He lost the battle.

It was 6:30am, and I was still asleep in my apartment on the lower level of our home in Buffalo, NY. I woke up to a strange, rather unpleasant odor that was spreading in the room and coming from the vents of the heating system.  I thought it was maybe the odor from the furnace as it was just starting up. Suddenly, my daughter Michelle, comes running down from the second floor apartment with little Gabriella and  Brianna in tow: "Mom, please keep the kids, Ellis just got sprayed by a skunk and our place smells terrible!" By this time the cloud of smell was spreading through every crack, vent and opening of this 1902 old triplex. There was no escape other than going out to the freezing cold.

At once, we all started googling for solutions - the sooner one starts de-skunking a dog the  better, but to do this one needs peroxide. Of course, there was no such thing in the house. So, Stew, Michelle's husband  put Ellis in the bathtub for a good shampoo. This, that then prevented Michelle from getting ready for work, so "Mom, can I take a shower in your  bathroom?" "Of course!" was my answer. By now the smell from Ellis' bath is spreading and seeping through every pore and and every invisible opening of this old house. The odor is penetrating our hair, our clothes, closets, dresser drawers, beds, towels and even my precious fabrics in the sewing room!  The air is sickening - we are all gasping and gagging.

Ellis gets a second shampoo and bath. Still, no changes, he smells as bad as before.

Finally, it was decided that the best is to go to work, get the children to daycare, and I will stay around the house and air out the rooms. Good choice, at least everyone will breath better air.  Ha! One hour later, Stew returns home - the smell from his clothes was too much for his coworkers. Michelle at her work tried to avoid human contact, but in the hallway there were comments: "Looks like someone got skunked!" In the evening the children came home dressed in a whole new set of clothing. The old cloths were tied in a plastic bag with a note attached: "We could not take the smell, had to change their outfits."

We were told, in two to three days, the smell will be gone. I hope so! I will not go to my bridge group for the next couple days.