to have been skunked...

...is to know odor.

Tonight, Scott was outside in the backyard with Josta. He was admiring an odd shuffled out path in the nine inches of fresh snow and wondering if it was made by an opossum or maybe even ...a skunk. Not five seconds later, there was the little critter, walking along, minding his own business. The following is an excerpt from Scott's personal journal: "So I just stood there in abject silence as the skunk waddled ever closer to my squatting dog. Josta, oblivious and content as usual, finished his business and began trotting in the opposite direction of the skunk—a moment of hope. At this point the skunk spied Josta and became somewhat frantic. He tried to plow a new path in another direction but with little success. Josta, happily marking another spot in the snow of the abandoned house, turned to come back toward me and, consequently, the skunk."


"Before I noticed that Josta had noticed the striped visitor, he was tearing toward him in full attack mode. Even the skunk didn’t see him coming. Barreling toward the innocent varmint, Dog grabs the skunk by the neck like he’d done with so many similarly sized creatures before, and shakes him like a rag, throws skunk down, snatches him up again, shakes him like a rag. Man yells “JOSTA, COME! COME JOSTA…” Man yells again and again. Dog shakes again and again. Skunk holds steady waiting for just the right moment. Dog throws down Skunk. Skunk turns, Dog looks square at Skunk’s rear end. Skunk unleashes unmitigated stench spray. Dog throws back his face. Skunk waddles away as quickly as possible while Dog’s attention is turned to rolling his face in the snow to soothe his burning eyes. Man yells, “You stupid dog!, what a stupid dog.” Man begins to laugh and vacates the befouled vicinity wondering what his wife will say when the entire house smells like the stupid dog."

Ha! Ha! Despite the smell that is plaguing our house, I think it is hilarious that such a slow-moving little guy got the best of that rat killer. Scott found a home remedy online, invented by a chemist from Chicago that is hydrogen peroxide and baking soda and is very affective in neutralizing the potent chemical of the skunk. Ah, the life and times of Josta the Dog.