Dr Kelly Fleming

I live in an area where seeing skunks, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, etc is a common occurrence.

However, skunks are not my friends. 😊

I recall a whole family of skunks that used to visit our backyard when I was a teenager. Happily, we were all inside by the time they arrived each night.

I remember the whole family lined up at the window watching them parade across our fence.

The funniest thing was when the largest skunk decided to sit on our picnic table. A few of the little ones tried so hard to get up there, quite unsuccessfully.

My other memory of a skunk :

When I was quite young, our puppy saw a skunk go under the car. His name was Lucky but that night he definitely wasn’t lucky. He got sprayed by the skunk!

I don’t think my parents fully thought through their next step. They grabbed him, brought him in the house and took him downstairs.

Mum always had a large stock of tomato juice in the house. Why, I’ve never known, since we rarely drank it. Whenever it was on sale for a good price, she bought it.

Poor Lucky was the recipient of Mum’s stock of tomato juice. They dumped him in the galvanized tub and poured can after can of tomato juice on him to try to rid him of the smell.

Dad gave him a good scrubbing in the tomato juice. Our cream coloured cockapoo (why that name is beyond me – he was part miniature poodle crossed with a cocker spaniel) turned pink! Not just light pink. That poor boy was PINK!

He lived for 13 years and even though he had his hair cut several times a year, there was always a light pink tuft of hair in the middle of his head just about his forehead.

He never seemed to mind, but it was a constant reminder to all of us that he got sprayed by a skunk when he was just a wee puppy!

As I mentioned, I don’t really think my parents thought things through before they brought him downstairs. Our front entrance smelt like a skunk that wafted through the house. It was tolerable, but the minute anyone opened the door to the basement, whoosh!

Our basement smelt like a skunk for a long time. 😂🤣 Dad had to close all the vents downstairs to try to prevent too much of the smell from overtaking our entire house.

My Dad too, who did the scrubbing with his bare hands had a heck of a time trying to get the smell of skunk off himself.

When I had my boys, the second I saw a skunk, I turned and took off! Dayton thought he would become friendly with a skunk we saw one night. Thank God the skunk was smarter than my poodle. The skunk took off in the opposite direction much to the disappointment of my poodle boy.