What's It All About?

We all know that cats are great at entertaining themselves.  Our Gypsy is no different than the rest when it comes to  doing her own thing.   Today she took the opportunity to check out one of Chris's books.  While not quite the bibliophile yet, she is becoming quite interested in books. Very smart cat!

Room With a View

Jake has a comfy spot in the outdoor room which also serves as a vantage point to spy on me through the open blinds on the bedroom window door.  Clever boy!

Of Cats and Skunks!

Forget what you remember about the unrequited love affair between those old Looney Tunes characters Pepe le Pew and Penelope Pussycat.   I'm here to tell you that Skunks and Cats just do NOT mix!

Last week will surely go down as being one of the worst in 2016.  Our lovely Smoke got skunked in the early hours of Tuesday morning.  I woke around 1am to that wretched skunk smell and cursed the fact that those odor-full pests have made it across the island to the west side.  I closed the bedroom window in hopes that the smell would soon dissipate, but strangely enough it only got worse, and to the point that my throat was burning.  For a minute I thought perhaps one had come through the doggie door and had sprayed inside the house. 

I noticed Smoke on the stool at the foot of the bed and thought surely he couldn’t have been skunked.  I smelled him but the room smelled so bad I couldn’t tell if it was him or not.  I tried to push him off the stool but he wouldn’t budge, so I threw him out the room, but he wanted back in.  I figured he had seen the skunk maybe and was afraid to go out.  Sleep was no longer an option so I got up and showered at 4:30am and went to work.

As it was, Chris called me later at work to let me know it was indeed Smoke who had been skunked. Crikey! What to do.??

Working and commuting do not lend themselves to accomplishing much in a small window of time in the evenings.  I managed to catch the vet before he closed and bought some skunk odor remover which was very effective on the furniture. 

Smoke was banned from the house, and the doggy access closed, and I handled laundry and spray clean chores for 2 nights in a row.

I used the odor product on smoke but only on the surface of his coat as I could not stomach the idea of trying to actually bathe him. Spraying it on him just made him run out and hide.  Poor boy!   On Friday we let him back in, but still so stinky.  We felt bad for him since he is, after all, part of the family.   I arranged to take him to the groomer for a de-skunking bath on Sunday, and spent both Saturday and Sunday doing major fumigating, cleaning and laundry.  

Our poor Smoke was not a happy camper during the bathing session.

 

He is now home and somewhat content.  He smells lovely, though still a hint of skunk around his face and ears but hardly noticeable. He's lost his spark though. We do hope that he has been educated by experience, and will stay clear of skunks!  I personally do not know if I could endure another episode like this past week.