Late night visitor

Denis let Geneva out into our back yard last night- around 10:30 for her usual evening stroll and pee before bed. This has been her routine for the past 3 years that we have lived in this house.

Denis began to hear noises – unusual noises-coming from the night-darkened area where the newly placed swing-set and little play house are in the back yard. As the noise increased in intensity - he called up stairs to me – “honey, I think we have a problem- do you know where the flashlight is?” He looks for the flashlight and I react in my normal- "knee jerk" way and run outside to see where/how my dog is. What in the world could she be getting into- is she stuck in that house?? Ughghghg....

As I approach the tree lined area of our yard, my heart pounding- the noise in the plastic house gets very loud and I turn abruptly around –running and screaming as I find myself being “chased” by a smelly skunk- Did I say SMELLY!!. The odor was awful- and right behind the skunk comes running – my wonderful but dopey St. Bernard! She is very excited to have an animal that she can CATCH!!! My dog was running up to this skunk over and over trying to catch it (insert dumb dog here).

Denis and I are yelling the usual amount of banter you would hear “get in the house, what are you thinking, dumb dog- come, COme and more COME, get over here.. etc!!!” Now he's joined me in our attempt to a) get the dog that is near the skunk, but each time the skunk runs in our direction we run for our “lives” back toward the house. Geneva picking up on our fear and the energy (???) – lifts the skunk with her mouth- throws it- and eventually but unhappily strolls our way.

SHE STINKS.. it’s now 11:00 or later and Denis and I are completely confused. What do we do?? She's really upset and asks for help- her eyes are all red and she's scratching at her nose Dawn dish detergent- somebody once told us about Dawn Dish Detergent. I think we should try it! Denis says “I’ll go inside and research what to do” –laugh. I’m like get me the dish detergent- we’ll try it and then figure it all out afterwards- she smells so bad….

So- 2 hours later we have a very well washed dog and we are walking with the little flashlight we found- around our neighborhood hoping she will dry well enough. Between the laughter- during our walk we discuss in depth our options for the night- sincerely confused about what to do with her when we return to the house. She has never spent the night in the basement and will probably be very unhappy. How about the garage-but there’s still a lot of construction materials around- will she be safe? Of course-there’s also that, we just had the basement finished- do we want the newest addition to the house to Smell like a skunk?? Outside? Should we tie her up outside? Hmm- options seem limited..

In the end- all of us exhausted, squeaky clean (or as much as you can be in this situation) and somewhat dry- her sweet dad (my dear husband) –totally caves in – gives her a good sniff test and says – “come on baby, It’s been a long night for all of us- let’s go to bed”….

Laugh- yes folks, the dog slept in our room with us. Now that’s true love!!!!