An adventure in dog ownership (that I hope never gets repeated)

Last night I got home from watching Nonni about 10:00.  I was exhausted by that time, but I took a shower and we (hubby, daughter and myself) sat down and watched the rest of the Yankee Game.   My son came in at 11:45 and we talked for a few minutes and by then I couldn't keep my eyes open.  About 15 minutes later, I hear my hubby screaming (literally screaming) for the dog outside.  There was a skunk....and Cyrus being the puppy that he is, thought it was his toy!!

So....we all piled out of bed and tried to figure out what to do next (except my daughter - she slept through the whole thing).  I got on line because I knew there was something other than tomato juice that you are supposed to use.  (We had used tomato juice on my mom's dog once and it worked to some degree, but it was messy).  All websites said the combination of Hydrogen Peroxide, baking soda and Dawn Detergent did the trick, so as hubby took off to the CVS a few miles away, I started a large stock pot full of hot water on the stove and brought up our big bins that we store in the cold room.  You need old towels, and garbage bags (large) for this disaster.  I could smell it in the house, even though the dog never got in the house, but he got as close as the back slider, so I started cooking white vinegar in one pan and cinnamon sticks in another pan on the stove (another internet site said that would work to keep the smell at bay).  Cyrus stayed outside and you could tell he was upset.  When hubby got home, I mixed up the quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 box of baking soda and dawn - about 1/4 cup in a large bowl and got it all sudsy.  Then we put on the garbage bags as ponchos, face masks (that hubby had gotten at the store), hats and gloves.  Tom held down the dog and I had to do all the sudsing (is that a word?).  He had only got it in his face and front chest and paws, so we basically only did the front of him.  Once he got all the mixture on him, we let it sit for about 10 minutes and then rinsed him off with the big bins of water.  He would have been much too cold if we just hosed him off.  We had to do this procedure twice.  It took about an hour and 1/2.  For the second procedure, I could take off the mask as the smell really had dissipated a lot.   I think we were lucky that he didn't get a fully direct hit (or two hits).  He is a long haired double coated German Shepherd so trying to get him washed was not easy.  We made it to bed about 2:00.

But since we still wouldn't let the dog in, we took his crate outside and put him in it and left the slider screen open.  Cyrus has never stayed out all night and he likes to bark, so I  made a bed for the hubby right next to the slider screen on the kitchen floor and hubby slept there all night.   This was definitely not a side of dog ownership that I like (there aren't many sides I like :)

So that is my new recipe for today.  I hope none of you ever have to try it!!

 I hope you were doing something much more fun at 1:00 this morning!!!


(Hey Elynor - this was worse than pouring the hydrogen peroxide down the old Sirius' throat)