Don’t stand, Don’t stand so, Don’t stand so close to me – I kept hearing Sting singing this song as I went out in public right after getting sprayed by a skunk to get some things to combat the stinky smell – I’m pretty sure Sting didn’t write this song about being sprayed by a skunk, but still….

So it’s been 2 weeks since Jo and I got sprayed by a skunk….and everything still stinks.  Definitely not as bad, but the smell is just everywhere.

After my last blog post I ran to the grocery store to get hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to make the mixture everyone assured me would work.  I also ran to the pet store to get special shampoo and spray to get rid of the skunk scent – I was gonna try EVERYTHING!!  Almost everything I read online said the tomato juice doesn’t work and it makes a huge mess so I skipped that. (Dogs tend to shake off when they get wet and I read more than one horror story online about people putting tomato juice on their dog and then having to clean up the colossal mess after they shook it off.  I decided pretty quickly I didn’t want to deal with that mess also.)  As I was picking up everything to make the mix people around me kept saying “EW!” and/or “What’s that smell?!?”  yeah it’s, me…  

When I got home JoJo was still waiting for me in her quarantined area of the bathroom.  I mixed up 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1 cup baking soda, and a bit of dawn dish soap – put on some rubber gloves and scrubbed JoJo down.  After I rinsed her off, I put the dog de-skunk shampoo, scrubbed her down waited the recommended 5 mins and rinsed her off again.  Everything I used on Jo I used on myself as well – except putting the hydrogen peroxide in my hair after I got a message from my hairdresser strongly advising me to not do it.  She suggested putting vinegar in my hair and letting that sit.  We put bowls of vinegar all over the house as that is supposed to absorb the smell.  It is quite amazing how the smell just permeates through everything – gets in every little crack, even closed closet doors to stink up all our clothes – I am not kidding when I say it is everywhere.

After doing all these treatments on Jo and myself we realized 1) we still stink – a lot and    2) there was NO WAY we were gonna make it to watch my nephew’s pine car derby.    My sister called me after it was over to tell us that his car (that Kevin helped make) got 4th place and won best in show – so that’s awesome! 🙂  Oh and there just so happened to be a car there that someone made to look like a skunk – LOL!

Now we have just been constantly cleaning everything, leaving bowls of vinegar around the house, doing laundry (100x), etc….luckily we have haha few days that we could leave the windows open to air the house out.  I had to throw out the clothes I was wearing, the collar JoJo was wearing and her name tag.    The were all directly hit and I read if you tried to clean them the smell could linger in the washer – not worth that. 

I know now it’s just a waiting game until the smell leaves my house – there are still parts on Jo where she was directly sprayed that smell strongly.  Since she has such thick fur I think that is contributing to the smell lingering, despite the multiple MULTIPLE baths.

I have never been sprayed directly like this before and I hope it NEVER happens again!  They used to like to live under my deck and I would get indirectly sprayed when walking across it, but Kevin and I put barriers up so they can’t get under there anymore and haven’t had a problem for a few years – I think this guy was looking for a new way under.

Saturday I said “JoJo let’s go get a bath.” and I gathered the ingredients to make the mix to lessen the smell – I looked around and couldn’t find her.  She had already jumped in the tub and was waiting for ME! LOL!  She must be sick of the smell too.  At least people can stand next to me now without smelling it – of course I didn’t go up and try to sniff the skunks bottom like Jo did so…..

To recap, nothing works 100% to get rid of the smell, the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, dish detergent definitely lessens the smell, but doesn’t get it completely out (again I think because she’s a shep and has a double coat of fur).  But everyday it gets less and less – although I had some people tell me that their dog got sprayed and the smell lingered for a year – great.