Why is it that our dogs chose the worst weather in which to escape?
Late last night, so late most folks would call it early morning, we discovered that the fierce winds ripping shingles off the neighbor's tool shed and tossing broken tree branches around hillbillburbia like spears, also blew open the back door to the sun porch - where the Stinky One and the One Who Shall Remain Nameless were housed for the evening respite - and whom promptly took off for adventures fueled by the howling winds and exotic smells ripping through the air.
Question: What's an adventurous doggie to do?
Answer: His ascot positioned cape-style, the Stinky One swings his head invitingly to his cohort-in-crime and dashes out the door. The One Who Shall Remain Nameless, never to be outdone, wiggles along after him, quite willingly.
At 3am, we discover the truant doggies missing, and thus commence a 5-hour long search of hillbillburbia, which included driving the subi around the dirt road hollars that streak the mountains behind us, and flashing our headlights into gosh-knows-how-many backwoods trailer windows and across sheep pastures and cow fields seemingly endless in the inky blackness.....Nothing.
At 8am, I hear a ruckus surely caused by our two truants - neighborhood dogs sounding off in a cacophony worthy of the best rooster awakening hillbillburbia has ever known. And in the fray - wait - is that the hound-dog howling of the Stinky One and the frantic, joyful yap yap yap of the One Who Shall Remain Nameless?
Why yes, it is! And here they trot across the neighbor's sheep pasture, happy as clams..and as STINKY AS SKUNKS!
Ah, just what I needed after a night of no sleep, frantically searching for missing pooches and worrying about them as if they were children, for gosh-sakes. deep sigh. well, they are home, safe and sound. for that happy appy smiles.
Talk about phew! driving through 'skunk smell' on the road does not prepare you for the horror to my nose and eyes that was dog fur 5 hours marinated in skunk oil...and now invades my home.
and...since happy appy was the one who found the duo and brought them home, and thus reeked of skunk herself...she is the one who gets 'skunk-dog walking and care duties' for the next week. or so.
and...since it is freezing temps outside (where the spicket and doggie tub are), and since happy appy is so very reluctant to bring the smelly creatures into the house proper...we are stuck with the homemade remedies of:
apple cidar vinegar rubdowns (daily, with towels doused in vinegar)
bowls of vinegar in the sun porch
frequent and heavy sprayings of frebreeze, frebreeze room effects
daily treatments to the bedding - arm and hammer pet fresh carpet powder
and...although happy appy is not advocating this step (please forgive me, St. Rock)...i do admit to misting the pooches (not their heads, just their backs where there's lots of fur) with frebreeze every now and then.
Lesson Learned (repeat after me): Make sure the door is locked. Make sure the door is locked. Make sure the door is LOCKED!
