Dog Vs Skunk Kit for Stink Spray Emergencies

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by Robin

We learned the hard way that we needed a Dog Vs Skunk kit.

It was already a painfully long day.  We were bone tired.  We had spent the afternoon and evening wallpapering.  I’m not sure what took the most energy: squatting up and down and up and down to get the paper lined up perfectly?  Or biting our tongues as we kept in (most) of the expletives when we screwed something up. (“No kids, Mommy said, “Ship!” it’s an expert wallpapering term.” They didn’t buy that one.)

It was a hateful process.  How is wallpaper tough as leather when dry and then turns to tissue paper when wet?

After the long day working on our mobile home makeover, Ed took our dog, Indy, into the woods to stretch and uncross his legs.  

We both fantasized about sneaking out the back door and slipping into the hot tub.  Our aching muscles needed a break.  We needed to get outside and enjoy some peaceful and fresh night air.

As I tucked my hair up and slipped into my bathing suit Ed yanked open the door and hollered inside, “Indy just got sprayed by a skunk!”  

Aw, ship – this relaxing evening just took a wrong turn.

The poor fella got it right in the face.  His eyes were angry red and he desperately rolled over and over on the ground trying to get the burning stink off him.

By some stroke of luck, the stores in the small rural town nearby were still open.  I don’t know what we’d do if they weren’t.  Ed sped into town while I googled by thumbs off looking for skunk de-stinking tips.

Thank goodness our spotty internet coverage was co-operating!  If not, we might have resorted to that old wives tale: tomato juice.  

Folks, what does your dog do about 6 seconds after getting wet?  Shake, right?  Now picture you’ve just soaked your dog in bright red, gloopy tomato juice.  I’m thinking the area would look like a Dexter crime scene.  

No thanks, Old Wives, keep your tips to yourselves.

The best advice I found was here from the Humane Society.  I’m not going to rehash it all for you in this post.  They did a great job and my hope is that eyes on their site might help bring them some much-needed funds.

What I will tell you is what we plan to have on hand from now on.  Be prepared!  

Next time we won’t need to risk (another) speeding ticket to get what we need.  Because now that we have a weekend place in the country, this is likely not our last time our dog square dances with a skunk.

Also, because our dog is curious and friendly and to a fault – he’s going to try and make friends with all nature’s creatures – no matter if they fart acid clouds in his face.  

He’s very forgiving.  He’s afraid of toasters and baseball gloves, but skunks, not so much.  He’ll get his nose right up that skunk butt next chance he gets.

So here’s what’s now in a box tucked away in a cupboard.

It’s our Dog Vs. Skunk Kit for Stink Emergencies:

What’s inside our skunk kit:

• 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide (only one is shown because we made a half batch to clean him again in the daytime).
• 1 box of baking soda (don’t be tempted to mix this ahead of time – it will explode.)
• dish soap
• 2 pair of rubber gloves (because if you just have one you won’t have a partner)
• Pet shampoo (we couldn’t get this on our skunk night – we used human.  Not ideal.)
• a cheap dog collar (they’re going to get sprayed in the head, it will soak into their collar, you’ll need them collared to be able to hold them still enough to torture them with your cleaning.)
• Not shown is old towels.

Here’s the dog vs skunk spray recipe:  

• 1 quart (approx 1 litre) 3% hydrogen peroxide  
• 1/4 cup (125 mL) baking soda  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dishwashing liquid

For detailed instructions, visit the site of the true experts at the Humane Society.

It’s been two weeks and Indy’s face still stinks slightly.  What also stinks is that our evening walks are on the leash from now on – which is tedious because one of his quirks is peeing better when he can run free – so these last walks of the night are looooooooong.  But nowhere near as long as a night dealing with skunk based nonsense.

We’ve got another great pet project: our IKEA dog crate hack! We made a beautiful, functional wooden dog crate simply and on a budget!

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