that stinks

No really... last night I went for a brief walk with one of the young girls from the shelter. We came across a skunk with its head stuck in an Ice-Capp plastic cup. Now personally I think the mortality of a creature is reflected in its reproduction. Skunks breed in litters of eight because god expects them to be road kill. So I was perfectly happy to watch briefly and move along. My young companion however is a bit more tenderhearted than myself, and was worried that the poor encumbered creature would waddle into traffic and be killed. As we pondered what if any action could be taken, a passerby suggested that picking a skunk up by the tail would prevent it from spraying. Theoretically it is plausible... Skunks raise their tails to spray; dangling the skunk would keep the tail prone to the body. But how fast would you have to be... to grab the skunk by the tail and lift it off the ground before it sprayed. I offered to let him handle that end to the project; he politely declined and continued on his way.
Anyway after a couple of minutes the animal started wandering in our direction... likely unaware of our presence. As the skunk's head came into arms reach, I made a quick grab for the cup and yanked it off. The skunk did his skunk thing... fortunately I was standing at the head (my friend was standing behind me), so I was victim of the overspray and she ...less so. The stench was not so pervasive as to raise anyone's ire but it was dis-stinked-ly present. So my friend and I walked along Rideau St and enjoyed the puzzlement of the people we passed as they detected the presence of "skunk" coming from somewhere. We went back to the shelter, sat politely in the TV. room and waited for someone to say something about the smell… after a few minutes that got boring. So we got cleaned up as best one and with soap and water. Skunk juice is pretty much immune to such mundane efforts. The other clients said they could no longer smell it on me, but I certainly didn’t agree. We left our clothes for washing and there was considerably more success with that. So I spent the night trying to adjust to the smell with some measure of success.
This morning I went to Loblaw’s and bought a large can of good, old fashioned tomatoes juice and some air freshener for the room. I sat myself in an empty bathtub, opened the can and began washing myself down (head to toe) with straight TJ continuing this until the can was empty. Showered off the Juice and eureka we are skunk free. The only thing still stinky are my leather sandals, which are currently in the dryer. If they don’t survive …they got no business in my wardrobe.
Do I feel good about rescuing one of God’s little creatures from his ill begotten fate….NOT REALLY; the nasty little rodent is just going to pop out more nasty little rodents. What I do feel good about, is helping my young friend spend a worry free night. But she so owes me an ice cream cone for that one LOL
So now you know the whole story. Have a joyous day.