Well, Autumn is certainly persistent! She and her dog, Bailey, have been staying with us for over a week, having a wonderful visit and enjoying the Fall foliage. Apparently, she was upset that we had even more guests coming (my in-laws), and didn’t want to share the attention. So she tried to scare everybody else away.

On Wednesday night, we were all downstairs attending to our different activities (working, watching TV, prowling in the refrigerator, etc.), when we all simultaneously smelled a skunk. Now, we often smell a skunk (Mr. Stinkie) in our yard here in Bangor and dismiss him because he is a frequent Summer evening visitor. However, the smell was SO strong that we were concerned. While we were all holding our noses and closing windows, you could almost see the light bulb flash over Autumn’s head as she said, “Bailey!”

You guessed it. Bailey was outside.

Autumn flew to the door and called repeatedly for Bailey. Finally, Bailey came lopping up the back porch stairs. She was foaming at the mouth, bleeding by the nose, and, holy cow, did she ever smell! Peeeyeww!!! The odor was absolutely overwhelming!

Autumn got Bailey into the bathtub and, after trying tomato juice (What a joke! That doesn’t work at all!), we found a recipe online that worked almost instantly. Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda in equal parts with a teaspoon of dish soap completely eliminated the smell. Unfortunately, Bailey had drooled on the carpet in the front and back hallways so the smell was there, too. Autumn scrubbed the solution into the carpets and it worked instantly there, too. You can still kind of smell skunk in the mudroom, but we haven’t figured out why. Bailey never did go in there. Perhaps Mr. Stinkie came in through the doggie door and went back out again.

The next night, after things had calmed down, Autumn apparently realized a skunk wasn’t going to work on scaring away my in-laws…so she started a fire on the stove. After she calmly exclaimed, “Fire,” I ran to the kitchen and found her blowing on it, to no avail. And it was not a little flame like all my kitchen fires. This was a HUGE flame. I turned the stove off, told her to back up, and threw a large cup of water on it. Works every time (provided you’re not cooking with grease).

Autumn lost and we all drove south to pick up Richard’s mother and grandmother for their 10-day visit. I know my cooking hasn’t been too bad yet…cause they’re still here.

Hugs to everybody!
Ang