so, good news

jules got sprayed by a skunk.

what? oh, not what you wanted to hear?

ME EITHER!

michael, jules and i went on a walk last night and we made sure to take our leash. we've walked the past two nights and jules has been a little defiant and super confident. she walks where ever she wants and it takes several calls of her name before she walks next to us. now, usually she is very obedient and will walk right next to us with little or no reminders or leashes. however, i think having her own place again with yards that are clearly hers has given her a bit of adolescent stupidity.

last night on our walk we purposefully paid special attention to her and made training her the reason for our walk. after she did really good walking next to us, we let her run. she ran for a short bit and came right back and walked next to us again. we walked a little further down the road, and mind you there a lot of open lots right now, when she took off without warning. we yelled and yelled and she stayed away. until...suddenly there was slight scuffle and she can running back to us, stopping here and there to rub her nose in the ground.

she stunk horribly. we immediately started walking to the house. jules stayed right next to us. we actually followed the skunk down the street a little ways because he was running straight for the drainage spot next to our house. thank goodness he was way ahead of us and running fast.

skunk smells up close are way worse than you smell driving down the highway. it's way more sulfuric smelling and it burns your nose badly. it is terrible. the only thing more terrible than smelling that is smelling that on your dog's head. gross.

anyway, we walked straight home, through the living room and straight into the backyard. i immediately looked up a skunk spray remedy and the first five sites said the same thing. mix 1 qt of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of dish soap. we started jules' outdoor bath about 8 minutes after she was sprayed, threw away her collar and then left her outside for the night.

jules has never spent the night outside. never. since we've had her she's been more of an inside dog than out. about 45 minutes later she started whining at the back door. she's not a dog that makes a lot of noise or fuss and we felt terrible. we let her sleep on the bathroom floor. besides the fact that michael and i still had that horrible smell in our noses and i kep worrying about jules smell taking over the house, we slept fairly well.

i woke up this morning, to jules shaking her hiney by the bed. i reached over to pet her and had to get all the way to her head before i could smell anything. of course, once i got there, the smell was still pretty strong, poor thing.

i think i'll go back to the store today and get enough stuff for one more bath with a sponge. maybe i'll be able to adequately bathe her without getting anything in her eyes. we'll see.

so, good news...not so good.