Howie and the Skunk

Howie herding chickens...

Howie relaxing at the beach

I have been accused of loving my dogs more than my kids on numerous occasions. This is not true, but I admit to loving me some Boston Terriers. My boys, Howie and Harvey are angels from Heaven. Harvey is a pound dog. He is straight  from the streets. We got Howie as a puppy and have had him for six years. He is a good boy, but lacks the personality of Harvard (his "real" name).
If you don't know Bostons are generally black and white like skunks. I think Howie believes skunks are Boston Terriers. For this reason he seems to hunt them out. He has been skunked five times. Yep, five times. It is always late at night right before I am going to bed.
The first time he was sprayed I used the tomato juice method. It didn't work. After this I researched and found a few other ways to deskunk a dog AND a house. The worst skunk attack ever was unexpected (they all are, but this was in the dead of winter). Typically, we have skunk issues in the summer. I am prepared for skunks in the summer. This attack happened President's Day weekend in February. Howie went out and I left the sliding glass door open for him to come back in while I went to the bathroom. The next thing I knew I smelled skunk and watched as he ran under our bed and rolled around. Major problem.
Our first priority was the carpet. I sprinkled coated the area with baking soda (after taking our entire bed apart in lightening speed) and then doused it a mixture of water, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap. We used a rubber broom (some crazy thing my husband bought at the state fair) to rub the concoction into the carpet. We vacated the room for the night and left the window open. I repeated this the next day and then the following day (and the day after that) I shampooed the area. Needless to say we were out of our room for nearly a week. This may not seem like our solution was successful, but after a week the smell was gone. My friend who did not use this method eventually had to have her carpet replaced and claims she can still smell the skunk. Skunk spray is that bad.
Back to Howie. The entire time we cleaned our room Howie was shakin like bacon in the garage. I took him into the laundry room and began to spray him down with warm water. He was shampooed up with baking soda, dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide as well. I let it sit on him for a few minutes and then rinsed. After two washings I dried him and sprayed him with Fresh Ayre. This is a pet deodorizer that is safe to spray on pets. He spent the night in the garage, but was no worse for wear.
If you got right up next to his face you could still smell a little of the skunk, but not much.
Now, I keep baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap in my laundry room which is conveniently located by the door the dogs use most of the time. Sure enough, last night Howie hooked up with another skunk. This time he went into the spa and was deskunked in no time. In fact, he didn't even have to spend the night in the garage.
As for skunk removal I have a fine neighbor who takes care of that. He is retired and loves to come up with ways to keep busy. Skunk catching is one of his hobbies. Last summer he trapped and relocated sixteen. I am headed over later today to talk to him about what his stats look like this year. These pictures were taken with his trail cam last summer. All I can say is the only thing skunks have going for them is they are black and white.