Skunks Are Jerks.

Very early this AM, before I left for work, I let my dogs out to do their thing. As I'm watching them in the yard, our Old English Bulldog Olive went on high alert, which is unusual, because she usually cedes "alert status" to our Pittie Mix Holly. Hmm....

Then I heard rustling in the woods. 

And then I saw in the dark a dark blob with a white stripe emerge from the brush. 

NO......

Before I could yell "HEEL", she took a skunk spray point blank right to the face. Holly was on the other side of the yard and avoided it, thankfully. I was able to wrangle Olive inside and gave her a bath in all sorts of things that my panicking wife said would work based on the internets (not tomato juice) which neutralized the smell thankfully. But I got the nastiness all over my hands, and no matter how much I scrub and no matter what I scrub with, it's in my nose and I can still "feel" it hours later. Ugh. 

Two things surprised me about the incident:

1. The smell of fresh skunk stank is way different than the whiff of a distant spray in the neighborhood. It's much more violent. 

2. The smell is still not as bad as when our other dog decided that it would be a great idea to roll around in a decaying fish carcass she found in the middle of a field on a hike (birds must have done a snag + drop from a nearby pond). 

Like the title says, skunks are jerks. 

With the amount of garlic I ate last night, a skunk is my spirit animal today.

We both be toxic.

This is Bella:

Bella is sweet, kind of neurotic, and very loving. She's also an idiot. She took two full blasts to the face last fall, about a month apart. She went straight into the bath after both of them. The interwebs specified a mix of dish soap, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and something else I can't remember. Bella did NOT enjoy it when this mix got into her eyes, but again, blast to the face, so....

She still smells a bit, especially if she gets wet. She's had multiple baths using a store-bought de-skunking shampoo, which seems to temporarily make her smell like lavender, but that's about it.

You're right that the scent is different when it's fresh and up-close. Much more of a chemical smell to me.

I had a pre-dawn encounter with a skunk during a run along the edge of a cornfield near college many years ago.  Not fun.  Fortunately avoided a direct hit.

Skunks are pretty fearless.  Just last year, a friend and I encountered one in broad daylight on the 6th tee at a local golf course.  He was trotting up the cart path.  I figured my friend, who was driving, would wait for the skunk to get out of the way.  Nope.  He puts the pedal to the metal and drives right for it.  I ducked.  It fired at us, but must have miscalculated our speed because the shot missed us astern.  He scurried into the woods.  We were already stinking pretty bad metaphorically.  We didn't need any literal stink.  Not sure what the group behind us thought when they rolled up into the cloud of stink.

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

Kona is a kindred spirit to Bella...

She got skunked twice in a month a while back.  I think she just wants to play with them.  One of the incidents happened when I let her out after getting home from work at 0200.  The commotion ended up waking my wife, and we had to give her a bath in the driveway in the middle of the night.  In 40 degree weather...

This stuff has worked very well for us, and I always try to keep a bottle on hand.

Nature's Miracle odor remover - Amazon

If skunks are jerks, huskies are bigger jerks. One of my huskies found a skunk on the trail, chased him into the bushes where he must have gotten sprayed multiple times before he killed the skunk, then he drug what was left of the skunk out to me as a gift, the whole time not really caring what he or the skunk smelled like. I remember using multiple shampoos and chemicals plus some tomato juice to get the smell out of him. Did I mention this is a long haired dog that takes forever to wash without having to deal with skunk juice.

My friend's Akita has done even worse to some of the skunks out at the lake. I doubt if there are any left there.

Tony Sestito said:

 But I got the nastiness all over my hands, and no matter how much I scrub and no matter what I scrub with, it's in my nose and I can still "feel" it hours later. Ugh. 
 

I would wash with diesel fuel.  I can't imagine that wouldn't kill any other odor.  But then you'd smell like diesel, so I don't know.....

Or maybe gear lube.

I would suggest that dogs are jerks and skunks are happy go lucky.

I've had numerous, usually surprise, encounters, even chasing one out of my shop, and never been sprayed. My dogs, on the other hand have been sprayed several times, because they can't leave it alone.

I'm not just defending skunks because I actually like the smell

They (skunks) seem to categorically dislike Fords as well. 

92 F-250, on my way home from a swing shift rotation near midnight- a waddling black and white blur jumped into the road between my headlight beam and front left tire.  Used almost a gallon of febreze trying to de-skunk the upholstery. It doesn't work well, btw.

A few years later

97 F-150, on my way to work (0530 this time), and another of the smelly little bastards waited til the front wheel went by and killed himself via the right rear wheel. That one was much easier to clean up after, but it was still multiple weeks of skunked truck. 

In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :

Used gear oil is still better than fresh skunk. 

Peabody said:

I would suggest that dogs are jerks and skunks are happy go lucky.

I've had numerous, usually surprise, encounters, even chasing one out of my shop, and never been sprayed. My dogs, on the other hand have been sprayed several times, because they can't leave it alone.

I'm not just defending skunks because I actually like the smell

Some dogs are just hunters. I have found dead possum, dead rats and even a dead crow in the backyard. I have no idea how they got the crow. The bad thing about the possums is that the local wildlife groups keep saying don't kill possums, they are harmless and actually keep the insect population down. My border collie actually outruns and catches squirrels. I have tried to stop her.

I think all dogs are hunters.

My point was that, IMO, the problem isn't usually the skunk, it's the dog, which is something they can't help.

I had a big fat possum get in my barn one year and I thought I scared it out. I didn't, but I did find out why it was fat a few weeks later when two little baby possums (no, they are still ugly) ran between my legs in the shop one night. I think I read that they can have a maximum of 23 in a litter, and she was full value. I live trapped and released them. All 23

This is Olive, BTW: 



She only really cares about two things: playing fetch with her frisbee and eating. She does not care for skunks, especially after today. I checked on her earlier (she's been crated today to sequester the potential spread of stink) and she seems to smell OK. That's a miracle. 

We have mellow California skunks. My dog will chase anything that runs. But the local family of skunks don't run. So dog comes up to them, they present their tails... and so far he hasn't managed to get sprayed. Amazing - and lucky, because in two of the cases I would have received the overspray.   

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Skunks are quite economical in their use. It takes several weeks to re-generate a sprayable load. Almost always they present fair warning too.

A skunk has the balls to hose me, it'll be the last thing it ever does.

My dogs never got into it with a skunk but the guy behind me on the highway did.

A skunk wandered onto the road and I clipped it with my truck.

It bounced right into the grille of the car behind me.

I felt bad but I laughed about it too...

I knew a guy that had a pet skunk.  De-glanded.

Guy was weird as hell, but the skunk was alright

Mr_Asa said:

I knew a guy that had a pet skunk.  De-glanded.

Guy was weird as hell, but the skunk was alright

"Hey Chris, you're kind of a creep. Why don't you get a ferret?"

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Some dogs are just hunters. I have found dead possum, dead rats and even a dead crow in the backyard. I have no idea how they got the crow. The bad thing about the possums is that the local wildlife groups keep saying don't kill possums, they are harmless and actually keep the insect population down. My border collie actually outruns and catches squirrels. I have tried to stop her.

Yeah, Bella is a born hunter. She into double digits with kills now, mostly chipmunks, a couple of squirrels, and one rabbit.

I was reminded of a funny story from my youth today. A friend of mine had a cat named Stinky. He was a black cat with some white spots, so they thought he kinda looked like a skunk, hence the name. Great cat, and an absolute legend. 

Another friend was going over to his place after school, and we used to just go to his basement door when he was in the area. It was kind of dark, and he saw something black and cat-sized with white splotches. He thought it was Stinky, so he crouched down and did the ol' pspspspspsps to get him to come closer. 

NOT STINKY. 

He got blasted in the face by that skunk point blank. The irony of the situation is something he'll never live down. 

I know I'm weird, but I truly love the smell of skunks. Although I've not yet had the pleasure of being sprayed by one. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Skunks are just trying to be the best skunks that they can be.