Eau No!

I reached a milestone as a dog owner last night. My first dog/skunk encounter!

Around 10:45pm, Shelby asked to go out, so I opened the door and as she ran down the steps, she suddenly zoomed across the lawn and started growling. Usually that means there's a cat outside or something.

But this time she was right next to the porch, so I peered over the railing and saw the black with the white stripe and I knew immediately it was a skunk. I tried to call Shelby off, but she wasn't having it. I didn't want her to get sprayed. I didn't want to get sprayed either. Unfortunately almost immediately I smelled a nasty odor. I was just hoping it hadn't been a direct hit.

I ran inside to get my shoes and my flashlight so I could keep an eye on the skunk. Shelby had it cornered under the front stairs. When I took a look I could see it was a small skunk, not quite a baby, but not full grown either. I tried to grab Shelby, but she kept evading me, running under the stairs from side to side, barking her head off the whole time. I'm sure the neighbors were loving this.

This went on for about 15 minutes, until Shelby started getting tired. Finally I was able to grab her by the tail (thank goodness for the Parson tail handle!) and pick her up. She was definitely stinky, but not too overwhelming. Her eyes were watery, so I washed off her face. She was panting really heavily, for about 15 minutes afterwards. I was a little concerned, but she eventually calmed down.

The little skunk was very valiant. It was stomping its feet and charging at Shelby if she got close. This morning when I let the dogs out, Shelby headed directly under the porch, but thankfully the skunk was long gone. I'll be checking the yard before I let them out tonight!