Pepe Le Pew

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

I had to get up early this morning in order to leave for work by 6:15. I got a bit of a surprise, though. I let the dogs out as usual and they immediately went after something in our backyard. So I went out onto La the back deck to calm them down and to reel them back in. Immediately it hit me. “Skunk! Great! I don’t have time for this!”

This raises two questions for me. 

• Why do dogs get sprayed by skunks on more than one occasion? My previous dog got sprayed three times over about 2 years. Really? 
• What is the best way to neutralize the horrific smell? 

I know that dogs are smart — well for the most part. You can teach them to do all kinds of crazy things. It seems logical to me that if you get a blast of nastiness in your face you might make a mental note to avoid the situation in the future. 

I read today that the behaviors of skunks might send mixed messages to curious canines. 

• The first thing skunks do is to try to intimidate a potential predator by slapping their front paws on the ground. I’m afraid my dogs see that as a playful gesture. 
• Skunks do look a little like a cat, you know. And according to the Internet, cats tend to raise their tails straight up when they are happy. No threat there. 
• Also, most dogs go straight for the butts of new friends in order to check them out or say hello or whatever. 
• So overall a skunk may be saying “back off, buster” but the dog interprets the body language as “come on, friend, let’s play.” 

That being said, I still don’t understand why dogs will approach skunks more than once. I just don’t get it. 

When my Cassie got sprayed this morning, I knew I had no choice but to try to get her bathed as quickly as possible. 

• So I carefully carried her inside to the tub, making sure I didn’t let her touch me anywhere. It was also imperative that I not allow her to get on any furniture or to rub her head on any carpeting. 
• I poured some enzyme cleaner in a cup and carefully poured it over her head, face and throat, rubbing it in all over. 
• I rinsed her. And water, by the way, makes the smell worse. 
• Then I did it again. 
• Sometimes when you’re right up there in it, you lose your ability to smell it. Nevertheless she passed the smell test after her second application so I toweled her off and sent her to the garage to dry off away from the furniture and carpeting. 

I think the enzyme product works better than tomato juice or baking soda, etc. And when I got to work today they all confirmed that they couldn’t smell the skunk on me. That was a win for the enzyme cleaner, too!

There you have it. Cassie and Pepe Le Pew got my day started off with a spray!

LORD, after the passage of a little time, we laugh about these curious encounters. I can only shake my head about it all. But I think it’s pretty cool how you gave skunks the instinct to take a stand, whether we like the olfactory outcome or not.