Adverse Aromatherapy

There were some grumpy people in our house Tuesday, after a long and unfortunately fragrant night. In addition to the skunking, Fishy, banished to the shed which connects house and barn, managed to open the door to the barn and again get into the garbage. His garbage-eating resulted in much off-gassing, leading to serious indoor air-quality issues once he was allowed inside Tuesday evening.

When not living out his ancestral carrion-eating fantasies, he barked intermittently much of the night, making sleep a challenge on my part. Thus, Tuesday was a long and not very productive day, with Dan and I both stumbling about like zombies. Skunk aroma up close leaves me with a headache, which tagged along with me all day.

This all could have been much worse -- the first time Fisher got skunked with us, (actually his 2nd time --once with his previous owners) it was during a late February thaw, and it was a direct hit. We could see the dark greasy stain on his chest where the skunk got him. Even though we were able to use the miracle hydrogen peroxide cleaner, it was such a close-up hit that the odor hung in the air, permeating the house and yard. It was too cold to leave him outside even in the barn, so we let him in the laundry room. Winter meant we couldn't open wide the doors and windows, and even though we did ship him off to be groomed the very next day, the smell lingered for quite a while.

This time, I don't think Fisher took a direct hit, and a rain shower later in the night helped to dilute the smell from the yard. During the day, the warm temperatures allowed us to open all the doors and windows and let the breeze clear away some of the smell. Fishy, too, spent the day outside letting the sun and breeze deodorize him. Let's just hope it is the last time we ever experience this -- although yesterday I did purchase 2 more quarts of hydrogen peroxide. Just in case.