I Had a Skunk Encounter
Careless skunkseeking leads to bites.
This time I was very reckless and I paid dearly for it. Since I won the coin toss I usually take to determine my fortune for the night if I go skunk-chasing, I decided to go for it, since the weather has been improving considerably as long as you leave early enough at night and maybe wear a windbreaker, you're okay. Well, I brought my wired-hair terrier/border collie mix dog Pockets along this time to see if he could assist with flushing out skunks. He was AMAZINGLY effective at that, in fact a little too effective. He darted off into the tall grass and barked at an animal that was still in it's burrow and I had to pull him away because even if it was a skunk, that would only result in him getting bitten up, not sprayed. He got his extendable leash tangled up in several branches almost immediately and I had to physically untangle him myself and pull him back out.
As I tried to lead him back out toward the lake, I noticed a skunk darting out toward the same tall grass and pulled Pockets back over toward it. The minute he caught sight of it he darted and jumped the little stinker. Worried he might actually hurt or kill the skunk, I frantically yelled and pulled him by his leash to remove him.
Naturally the skunk was NOT happy about this and stood his ground after the fight, ready for another round. I promptly put my skunk plush Penelope against it's rump and got her freshly perfumed, and the skunk ran off into the tall grass creek area, hopefully not too badly injured (they have pretty thick necks and it looks like that's all he went after). I feel pretty horrible about this because it's NEVER been my intent to injure any skunks, and I should've really seen this coming given how Pockets acts around other dogs, for instance. The skunk ran off without a limp and didn't appear to be bloodied, so hopefully it's okay.
Pockets however rolled around for several minutes trying to remove the stink, which is what just about all mammals do after being sprayed. He also got so overwhelmed by his new stench that he puked a few times, really ramping up my regret.
I circled the lake a bit and Pockets again tried to flush out another animal that was obscured by heavy rocks, and barked frustrated when he couldn't get into such a small space. I pulled him away and led him back around, surprised that his nose functioned anywhere near as well as it did considering how badly sprayed he is. When we got back toward my car, he darted straight for the feral cat enclosure and flushed out...another skunk. I didn't realize it was a skunk until it actually left the safety of the shelter and darted beneath the weird boardwalk thingy by the docks. Pockets quickly followed, exploiting the extendable leash to go directly under the boardwalk and start ANOTHER fight, clearly not learning that fighting skunks = incredible stench, and getting sprayed again for his trouble as I yanked frantically to force him back out of there. He resumed rolling around on the ground like a dying carp as I verbally expressed my disappointment in his inability to learn. I looked back over to watch for the skunk and when it ducked out from the platform I made a mad dash toward it and got it's tail, receiving quite a perfuming in response. I inadvertently lifted it off the ground a few times as I had to deal with the little stinker squirming like mad trying to bite me, and if I'd had Penelope still with me I would've used her as a biting decoy, but alas, I left her in the car after she was skunked.
This proved to be my downfall as I maneuvered the little stinker carefully to spray my hands a few times and liberally rubbed in the musk on my neck, then put either arm directly up to it's rump. In the tussle the skunk bit at my leather weight-lifting gloves and actually tore part of the inner lining of one finger off, grazing my skin as well. Feeling this I said "Hey no biting!" and dropped the skunk, then went back to finish off my arms, still having to deal with the bite attempts but unfortunately not having QUITE the reflexes I thought I did because the skunk connected with a deep bite to my (sadly unprotected) left ring fingertip, biting dead center of the finger.
I immediately panicked, cursed, dropped the skunk and let him go for good this time. I darted over to the nearest water fountain to wash my badly-bleeding finger off only to find that AGAIN the damn thing is still shut off for winter weather. Grabbing Pockets' leash as he continued his pathetic wriggling, I led him back to my car, disregarding all prior odor-transfer safeguards and drove rather recklessly out of panic back to my house to frantically wash the wound.
I nearly wrecked my car twice in my alarmed state, trying to race against time to get my finger washed off. It's not a LONG drive back to my house (maybe 10 minutes?) but certainly felt that way. Rabies paranoia tends to do that to a person. I rushed inside, made sure Pockets got in (surprisingly he was in no mood to fight me at all, miserable with his new stink), stripped off the gloves and washed the wound frantically with water as hot as I could get it and a liberal amount of antibacterial liquid soap, following that with drying off and lots of Neosporin, and a band-aid.
I called the hospital I went to last time I was bitten, fought their stupid automated system for a while and finally got transferred to the emergency room. I asked the nurse that since I got my post-exposure rabies shots in October 2012, would I need booster shots having just been bitten tonight? She asked someone else (hopefully a doctor) and then told me "You're good." That relieves me but I'm still kind of worried. Rabies is not the kind of disease one should ever take lightly after all.
The skunk didn't show any SIGNS of rabies, displaying entirely normal skunk behavior like running away and spraying, something rabid skunks generally don't do (it does after all turn just about any animal into a hydrophobic zombie). Again in my panic I didn't bring the skunk in for tests, which is to my detriment since testing it would be the only conclusive way to know if it was clean.
Needless to say the panicking killed any good mood I might've had from the perfuming at first, but I managed to get it back after checking with the hospital. I'm a little concerned the bite might get infected, but if it does I can still hit up the ER after I deodorize, and I just saw that I have 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide left to clean myself and Pockets. I'm sure I'll need them (he was repeatedly drenched, his chin for instance is very visibly matted).
As a result I think I'll do another hiatus AT LEAST until I get PROPER leather gloves, skunks are far more agile than they look and generally very bitey when you get hold of them. The irony is that full-hand leather glove I got sprayed on my last adventure I *didn't* wear tonight, and given the bite was on my left ring finger it would've actually protected me. I wanted to replace them back in February but I found that Wal-Mart apparently got rid of their winterwear section despite the weather still being pretty crappy back then. Maybe I'll see if I can order some online.
Meanwhile I think I'll enjoy my lovely, intoxicating new scent, I've been sniffing Penelope a lot and even cuddled Pockets a little to make him feel better about his predicament.
This time I was very reckless and I paid dearly for it. Since I won the coin toss I usually take to determine my fortune for the night if I go skunk-chasing, I decided to go for it, since the weather has been improving considerably as long as you leave early enough at night and maybe wear a windbreaker, you're okay. Well, I brought my wired-hair terrier/border collie mix dog Pockets along this time to see if he could assist with flushing out skunks. He was AMAZINGLY effective at that, in fact a little too effective. He darted off into the tall grass and barked at an animal that was still in it's burrow and I had to pull him away because even if it was a skunk, that would only result in him getting bitten up, not sprayed. He got his extendable leash tangled up in several branches almost immediately and I had to physically untangle him myself and pull him back out.
As I tried to lead him back out toward the lake, I noticed a skunk darting out toward the same tall grass and pulled Pockets back over toward it. The minute he caught sight of it he darted and jumped the little stinker. Worried he might actually hurt or kill the skunk, I frantically yelled and pulled him by his leash to remove him.
Naturally the skunk was NOT happy about this and stood his ground after the fight, ready for another round. I promptly put my skunk plush Penelope against it's rump and got her freshly perfumed, and the skunk ran off into the tall grass creek area, hopefully not too badly injured (they have pretty thick necks and it looks like that's all he went after). I feel pretty horrible about this because it's NEVER been my intent to injure any skunks, and I should've really seen this coming given how Pockets acts around other dogs, for instance. The skunk ran off without a limp and didn't appear to be bloodied, so hopefully it's okay.
Pockets however rolled around for several minutes trying to remove the stink, which is what just about all mammals do after being sprayed. He also got so overwhelmed by his new stench that he puked a few times, really ramping up my regret.
I circled the lake a bit and Pockets again tried to flush out another animal that was obscured by heavy rocks, and barked frustrated when he couldn't get into such a small space. I pulled him away and led him back around, surprised that his nose functioned anywhere near as well as it did considering how badly sprayed he is. When we got back toward my car, he darted straight for the feral cat enclosure and flushed out...another skunk. I didn't realize it was a skunk until it actually left the safety of the shelter and darted beneath the weird boardwalk thingy by the docks. Pockets quickly followed, exploiting the extendable leash to go directly under the boardwalk and start ANOTHER fight, clearly not learning that fighting skunks = incredible stench, and getting sprayed again for his trouble as I yanked frantically to force him back out of there. He resumed rolling around on the ground like a dying carp as I verbally expressed my disappointment in his inability to learn. I looked back over to watch for the skunk and when it ducked out from the platform I made a mad dash toward it and got it's tail, receiving quite a perfuming in response. I inadvertently lifted it off the ground a few times as I had to deal with the little stinker squirming like mad trying to bite me, and if I'd had Penelope still with me I would've used her as a biting decoy, but alas, I left her in the car after she was skunked.
This proved to be my downfall as I maneuvered the little stinker carefully to spray my hands a few times and liberally rubbed in the musk on my neck, then put either arm directly up to it's rump. In the tussle the skunk bit at my leather weight-lifting gloves and actually tore part of the inner lining of one finger off, grazing my skin as well. Feeling this I said "Hey no biting!" and dropped the skunk, then went back to finish off my arms, still having to deal with the bite attempts but unfortunately not having QUITE the reflexes I thought I did because the skunk connected with a deep bite to my (sadly unprotected) left ring fingertip, biting dead center of the finger.
I immediately panicked, cursed, dropped the skunk and let him go for good this time. I darted over to the nearest water fountain to wash my badly-bleeding finger off only to find that AGAIN the damn thing is still shut off for winter weather. Grabbing Pockets' leash as he continued his pathetic wriggling, I led him back to my car, disregarding all prior odor-transfer safeguards and drove rather recklessly out of panic back to my house to frantically wash the wound.
I nearly wrecked my car twice in my alarmed state, trying to race against time to get my finger washed off. It's not a LONG drive back to my house (maybe 10 minutes?) but certainly felt that way. Rabies paranoia tends to do that to a person. I rushed inside, made sure Pockets got in (surprisingly he was in no mood to fight me at all, miserable with his new stink), stripped off the gloves and washed the wound frantically with water as hot as I could get it and a liberal amount of antibacterial liquid soap, following that with drying off and lots of Neosporin, and a band-aid.
I called the hospital I went to last time I was bitten, fought their stupid automated system for a while and finally got transferred to the emergency room. I asked the nurse that since I got my post-exposure rabies shots in October 2012, would I need booster shots having just been bitten tonight? She asked someone else (hopefully a doctor) and then told me "You're good." That relieves me but I'm still kind of worried. Rabies is not the kind of disease one should ever take lightly after all.
The skunk didn't show any SIGNS of rabies, displaying entirely normal skunk behavior like running away and spraying, something rabid skunks generally don't do (it does after all turn just about any animal into a hydrophobic zombie). Again in my panic I didn't bring the skunk in for tests, which is to my detriment since testing it would be the only conclusive way to know if it was clean.
Needless to say the panicking killed any good mood I might've had from the perfuming at first, but I managed to get it back after checking with the hospital. I'm a little concerned the bite might get infected, but if it does I can still hit up the ER after I deodorize, and I just saw that I have 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide left to clean myself and Pockets. I'm sure I'll need them (he was repeatedly drenched, his chin for instance is very visibly matted).
As a result I think I'll do another hiatus AT LEAST until I get PROPER leather gloves, skunks are far more agile than they look and generally very bitey when you get hold of them. The irony is that full-hand leather glove I got sprayed on my last adventure I *didn't* wear tonight, and given the bite was on my left ring finger it would've actually protected me. I wanted to replace them back in February but I found that Wal-Mart apparently got rid of their winterwear section despite the weather still being pretty crappy back then. Maybe I'll see if I can order some online.
Meanwhile I think I'll enjoy my lovely, intoxicating new scent, I've been sniffing Penelope a lot and even cuddled Pockets a little to make him feel better about his predicament.
41-45, M
