There it was, almost 11pm at night. Three dogs looking at her with expectant eyes, quiet for a brief stillness in the air. One big black one, one small white one and one that had blue eyes that came out of nowhere in his hound dog coat. For just a small moment, they looked at her with such expectation and trust, waiting for her to take action. The love and peace she felt was overwhelming.
Then...the moment was over. All three started barking and jumping, knocking her into the deck door. "How can I open the door if you keep pushing me against it?! Hang on! Attendez! Arretez! Sit!". She reached for the key to open the back door to let them out to do their business for the last time that night, then bed. Once they were out, she closed the door - golly, was it hot! She went to the kitchen, drank some water and went back to the door to get them to come back.
Uh oh. Joey had something. She hated it when they got small animals like rabbits or squirrels and usually was able to divert them by running in the midst and being their pack leader. She had buried a few of their prey but some got away alive, thank goodness.
This one seemed bigger though. She opened the door to go take care of the problem and was smacked in the face with the worst, worst, worst eye-burning stench ever. The little dookey had a skunk. A skunk. You know when you have that moment when you absolutely know what you have to do and you do it but while you're doing it, you have a running dialog in your mind about why are you doing this,what you going to do and how the heck did this happen again? That was her - taking the lead to take care of everything while wondering how, just how, just how this is happening again.
She was two people in that moment- flying to take care of her boy Joey and at the same time wondering what she would do with a skunk when this was all done.
'Ok, I just have to get Joey away from this thing. How can I do that? Where's Jake? Where's Maisy?' All this going through her mind as she fought to hold Joey back. 'Ok, Maisy - you're a smart girl - other side of the yard...smartest one in the whole place, aren't you. Jake -there you are - just standing five feet away watching...I bet you got him going on this, didn't you. Just stand there - don't you dare get involved now.'
She ran back to the deck to get the old broom she kept there and ran back out to get the skunk away from Joey again. Right now there was no stink; there was just the adrenaline of the moment. She yanked Joey away again and he dropped the skunk. She put the broom against the skunk on one side and held Joey off on the other. 'Now what do I do? If let go of Joey, he's going to try to get it again. If I let go of the broom, I'll have to chase Joey anyway and what if Jake gets involved?' Ok....she dropped the broomstick, grabbed 62lb flailing Joey tightly and ran with him (more stumbled really) to the deck where she dropped him and closed the gate. The she went back to the skunk and poked it a bit to see if it was alive. It wiggled just a tiny tiny bit - but it could have been the wind.
No way in heck was she going to pick this thing up without lots of stuff between them. And wonder of wonders, Jake was still staying away and Maisy, bless her heart, was still as far away as the fenced yard would let her be.
She went back in, got two old towels, wrapped them up so she didn't have to touch the skunk and went out, picked him up and took him to the woods on the other side of the fence. Bugger was heavy!!!
Now, it sounds like that's the battle doesn't it? Well, that's only the preface. That's not the last battle. I'll be adding more as she finds ways to triumph over Pepe's unwanted aroma. I still have to tell you how she handled the vinegar skunk scent, the lemon skunk scent and the whole Brady Bunch tomato juice saga.... and a flashback about why she was wondering how this was happening again.
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