Sunday, September 28, 2008

Necessary Evil!



Several Weeks ago Chase and the neighbor dogs had a little run in with a small black and white furry creature out for an evening stroll.  The kids and I were out of town visiting cousins so poor Brad was the one that had to deal with the full brunt of the smell, cleaning, washing and cleaning again.  In Brad's words, Chase was so excited to come across a very interesting and riveting find.  After Brad heard unruly barking in the back yard he called Chase into the house (what was he thinking?) Chase was snorting and sniffing and wiping his head and nose on everything but couldn't wait to show his "Alpha Male" (really, it's a little pathetic but, this is what Brad is to Chase) what he had found.  He was fried that Brad wouldn't go out and congratulate him his amazing treasure.  Instead, they went straight up to the shower and scrubbed and scrubbed.  When the kids and I got home 2 days later the house wreaked of skunk.  Slowly the house scent returned to normal, but even now, 6 weeks later, there is a lingering stink around Chase's right armpit.  And his bedding, whew!!  Of course we are still bathing him regularly holding out faith that he's not going to smell like skunk for the rest of his life - instead of his normal sweet smell of sweaty dog.  The problem is when he gets wet the smell gets magnified by about 100x.  YUCK!  On this particular day Afton decided that she wanted to give Chase a bath, but the kiddie pool that she has used before had too many holes so she resorted to this small (relatively), red, rubber tub.  Now Chase doesn't much care for water, not typical for his breed - but then Chase never was typical, and Afton had a hard time keeping all 4 of his legs where they should be.  She finally resorted to having Brad help (and yes for those of you wondering... he is wearing his Sunday shirt).  By the time they were done everyone was soaked.  And little did we know at the time but Chase was only 1 bath away from being almost completely purged of that awful, bitter oder that smells of old coffee, oven cleaner, stinky feet and musk.  It gives new meaning to the dramatic characters in the Pepe LePew cartoons.  LeYikes!