I've been letting the girls run free in the morning, since we live at the end of a quiet road and they have an open field to explore. They don't usually go far and almost always come right back when I whistle. But this time, though Sofia ambled back as soon as she saw me, Chica had disappeared. I whistled a couple of times and then saw her darting ahead in the darkness about a hundred yards away. And out of the corner of my eye I saw what I first took for a cat, but no, cats don't carry their tails quite like that. A microsecond later, an all-too-familiar acrid odor filled the air. Chica came rushing home looking sheepish. Before allowing her inside, I bent down and gave her the sniff test. Caramba! She must have gotten a shot right in the face. This is the fourth time she's been skunk-bombed, and I'm starting to rethink the "free run in the morning" routine.
I'm just grateful it doesn't take gallons of tomato juice to remove skunk odor from a dog. Her usual piña colada-scented shampoo did the job, gracias a Díos. Around here, tomato juice comes in little cans, for Bloody Marys, not in gallon jugs for stink removal. At the Purely for Pets blog, I found a recipe for another solution using hydrogen peroxide, just in case the shampoo didn't work. Caution must be taken not to get it into the eyes, though.
I also looked up "skunk" in the diccionario and found two Spanish words for it: mofeta (f) and zorillo (m). Maybe a female skunk is a mofeta, and a male is a zorillo. One sure thing: I'm not about to investigate which this one was!
11 comments:
That will wake you up!
HA! I would have never imagined skunks in San Carlos. Can you imagine me opening a hundred small tomato juice cans if Sitka had been sprayed??
I had no idea there are skunks here. Good to know. Glad the shampoo did the trick.
Pobrocita!
Thanks Bliss. You taught me a new vocabulary word. I have never heard the word "mofeta" used for skunk. People where I live generally use "zorrillo" but my dictionaries indicate that mofeta and zorrillo" are interchangeable. I asked my wife Gina who is a native speaker and she said she never heard the word mofeta. I don't know why there are two different words. Perhaps someone can tell us.
Mommy - Especially since I bathe the dogs on a folding table under the shower, so it means a shower for me too.
Cyn and Mike - I doubt there would have been skunks in Guaymas Centro, other than the two-legged variety.
Jan - Yes, we have a resident skunk that I've seen several times. You could have one on the Caracol too, I wouldn't be surprised.
jomamma - Nah, it was nothing. But I may be using leashes from now on, at least while it's still dark. Skunks are nocturnal.
Bob - WordRef gave "mofeta" as their first choice for the skunk definition, and so did Ultralingua. But maybe they call a skunk "mofeta" in Spain. Quien sabe?
My Chow found a skunk in the yard one day before school, it sprayed him in the face and the dog ripped the skunk in half. The dog, about 120 pounds, pushes by me at the door and shakes skunk drops all over the entry hall,three months for that to go away, then dashes for the back of the house. My kids were still in bed so I grabbed the dog and put him in the shower-too late. The kids went to school, got sent home as they had been skunked in their beds. I could not tell as I was skunked in spades by then. Now that big fella goes out on a leash if its dark out and skunks could be about...
Norm - A skunk nightmare! Your house, your kids, your yard, your bathroom... Yikes!
norm - oh my gosh !!! - that sounds awful ... and as an outsider: a bit funny too ..
Oh it was bad, the place in the yard where the dog and the skunk met was by my mail box, stunk for a month with no cure. Linda, my wife, was in the basement and got skunked so bad that it stunk up her room at school, she got the look in the check out line at the store buying the products needed to desmell the house, it was like it was in our skin. I like to think that Hunk is better than a gun in the house but you really have to keep an eye on him outside-he does not like skunks.
uh-oh!
thanks for stopping by my post on cc! i ike the few of yours i just read, too! you seem to have a lot of fun and adventure.
Post a Comment