Another Critter Casualty

Even though Remington demands a lot of time and attention, and is usually the one getting into mischief, we do have other animals that certainly keep us busy. In addition to Princeton the Shire, Remi shares his ranchette with two dogs and a cat.

Trainer Mom's dog Keiko is an Akita and my dog Bailey or as we call him Doodlebug, is a Schnocker (half Schnauzer/half Cocker). Gabe the kitty is an orange and white tabby who despite getting on in years, is still busy hunting mice in the barn and snoozing soundly in Remi's wagon.

During the summer, the horses are fed late in the evening after it cools down so that it lessens the possibility of them getting colic and so Remi won't be sounding the alarm at the crack of dawn for his breakfast. He usually does anyway, but you have to try, right?

The dogs really love going to the barn and tearing across the pasture romping and roaming to see what adventures or trouble they can get into. Keiko knows how to stay out of the way of the horses, but Bailey doesn't, so they usually don't go down until the horses are in their stalls and it's safe for them to be there.

The other night trainer mom took them to the barn and while Bailey remained right by her side in the feed stall, which by the way is very unusual, Keiko darted right back up into the back yard and was on the way to a rumble with something. And that something was a skunk!!! Keiko, that wasn't a kitty!

Oh my word, she got sprayed in the face. I of course, was inside since I am still banned from the barn, when trainer mom came rushing through the door saying "Keiko's been skunked". Out I hobbled and P.U., there was skunk smell everywhere. She was sneezing like crazy and stunk to no end.

I did a quick search on the internet to find a solution because the tomato juice remedy really doesn't work. It makes a big mess and all it does is mask the smell temporarily. And we didn't have it anyway. I found several posts about mixing hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and a little dishwashing liquid. Ok, we had everything but baking soda, so we used baking powder instead. We also used natural tears solution to soothe her eyes and it worked wonders for that part.

I hobbled back outside and help scrub her down, which made us both now smell like skunk and it really didn't seem to help much. The whole time we were washing her, Remi and Prince were hanging their heads out watching the action. Every once in a while I would see them both shake their heads, because it was just so very nasty. I did have to laugh at them, and quite frankly we were both crinkling up our noses and shaking our heads too.

Poor Keiko had to sleep outside on the patio that night because the smell was so overwhelming, we couldn't have it sinking into the carpet and furniture. And quite honestly, none of us could breathe. It was a clear, cool night so although we didn't like leaving her outside, we had no choice.

Yesterday, she got two more baths, but since she got the worst of it on her head and neck, it's been harder to get the smell to go away because we don't want anything getting into her eyes. We did finally let her come in because it was just to hot to make her stay outside. She came over by Bailey and he growled at her and ran away. Now, Bailey absolutely adores Keiko, but he wasn't having any part of that action. He spent the whole day by my side in the computer room.

Since she was inside and still not smelling to sweet, I gave her the temporary name StinkerBell, which seemed appropriate for the situation. We both feel so bad for her and are taking care of her just as much as we do Remi and the rest of the critters when they need us.

So, as they say, there is no rest for the weary and around here that is certainly a fact. It makes me wonder if Remington decides he's going to take a day off from getting into things and sends a message to the other fur kids to stir up some action and take the attention off of him :) What do you think?

Here's Keiko (alias StinkerBell) and Gabe


And here's Bailey (alias DoodleBug)

Stay tuned, stay happy and stay with us.