I Had a Skunk Encounter
I have a very smelly truth or dare story! Last summer, we were staying at a friend's cottage for a few days. The cottage is on a lake about 25 minutes from a major city, and while there are plenty of cottages on the lake, they are spread fairly far apart. All this to say, we were pretty isolated. My friend's family had been having problems with raccoons breaking in to their screened in porch, so they had hired a trapping company to get rid of them. There were four live traps set around the property, and the company left instructions to call them if the traps caught anything and they'd send someone out to retrieve it.
Well, the day went by normally. We played in the lake, tanned on the dock, had a few drinks, a good time was had by all. As the sun was setting, we were eating dinner on the back deck when we heard one of the traps snap shut. The host went to check the cage, and came back to let us know it was a skunk, and for us to avoid that side of the house. We called the trapping company, and they said they'd come collect it in the morning as they had already closed up shop for the day. So we go about our business, avoiding the trap, but the skunk was the subject of many jokes throughout the night.
After dark, we had been drinking quite a bit, and playing drinking games. We eventually settled on truth or dare... I bet you can see where this is going. I never back down from a dare, so every time someone picked me I chose the dare option. They kept giving me more and more extreme dares, and they were getting annoyed that they couldn't get me to chicken out. So eventually, the host said "I dare you to go shake the trap with the skunk in it." Good dare. What was about to happen to me was totally worth the looks on their faces when I calmly said "OK", with a big smile on my face.
"You're going to get sprayed" the host told me.
"I know."
"You're going to have to bathe in tomato juice"
"I know. Do you have any?"
"Yeah, my mom left a ton here. The dog kept getting skunked last summer"
"Alright, well let's do it then!"
"You're nuts."
So we all headed outside. The rest of the girls watched from the side of the deck, afraid to get anywhere near. The host filmed on her phone, determined to make me feel dumb for accepting the dare. I started heading towards the trap. Man, that skunk was so darn cute! It barely even had a stripe, it actually looked more like spots. I gotta say it was pretty docile too, at first. I walked right up to within an arm's length of it before it even seemed to notice I was there.
"Shake it!" one of the girls yelled.
Well, those were the terms of the dare. I lifted my arm to reach towards the trap and BAM!! I couldn't even follow it's movement, it was so quick. It spun around and sprayed a huge spurt up across my chest, splashing up on my neck and my face. It didn't register to me what had happened immediately, until the sprayed areas began to feel cold. One of the girls behind me shrieked. Then my eyes started to burn. THEN the smell hit me. Oh my god I reeked!! I was NOT prepared for how strong it was going to be. The girls on the deck were freaking out, and the host who had been previously filming me had to retreat away from the smell.
Well, I had been skunked. After what seemed like an hour, but was probably more like 3 minutes, I could see again. Stinky, soaked, and embarrassed, I couldn't help but laugh. But also, the worst had happened, and I still had a dare to finish. I picked up the cage, fearless now, turned towards the girls on the deck and gave it a VERY gentle shake. This, unsurprisingly, earned me another spray around my waist area. I figured since I already stunk, I may as well let the poor guy out of his cage. He scampered off into the woods, leaving me skunked and 'defeated'.
I turned back towards the cottage and discovered most of the girls had gone back inside. I came up, stripped down to my underwear, and hopped into the bathtub. The girls took turns pouring tomato juice all over me, leaving me to soak. All in all, everyone had a good laugh. The rest of the trip they all made jokes about how crazy I was for actually having gone through with it. The smell stunk up the house pretty good, but we googled and learned that boiling some vinegar would help with that, and lo and behold it did!
The smell didn't wash off entirely in the tomato juice, but faded to the point it was tolerable, although I did get some teasing. At the campfire the next night, we burned my skunked clothing.
I wouldn't say it was my favorite experience ever, but it's really not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. And skunks are still pretty damn cute!
Well, the day went by normally. We played in the lake, tanned on the dock, had a few drinks, a good time was had by all. As the sun was setting, we were eating dinner on the back deck when we heard one of the traps snap shut. The host went to check the cage, and came back to let us know it was a skunk, and for us to avoid that side of the house. We called the trapping company, and they said they'd come collect it in the morning as they had already closed up shop for the day. So we go about our business, avoiding the trap, but the skunk was the subject of many jokes throughout the night.
After dark, we had been drinking quite a bit, and playing drinking games. We eventually settled on truth or dare... I bet you can see where this is going. I never back down from a dare, so every time someone picked me I chose the dare option. They kept giving me more and more extreme dares, and they were getting annoyed that they couldn't get me to chicken out. So eventually, the host said "I dare you to go shake the trap with the skunk in it." Good dare. What was about to happen to me was totally worth the looks on their faces when I calmly said "OK", with a big smile on my face.
"You're going to get sprayed" the host told me.
"I know."
"You're going to have to bathe in tomato juice"
"I know. Do you have any?"
"Yeah, my mom left a ton here. The dog kept getting skunked last summer"
"Alright, well let's do it then!"
"You're nuts."
So we all headed outside. The rest of the girls watched from the side of the deck, afraid to get anywhere near. The host filmed on her phone, determined to make me feel dumb for accepting the dare. I started heading towards the trap. Man, that skunk was so darn cute! It barely even had a stripe, it actually looked more like spots. I gotta say it was pretty docile too, at first. I walked right up to within an arm's length of it before it even seemed to notice I was there.
"Shake it!" one of the girls yelled.
Well, those were the terms of the dare. I lifted my arm to reach towards the trap and BAM!! I couldn't even follow it's movement, it was so quick. It spun around and sprayed a huge spurt up across my chest, splashing up on my neck and my face. It didn't register to me what had happened immediately, until the sprayed areas began to feel cold. One of the girls behind me shrieked. Then my eyes started to burn. THEN the smell hit me. Oh my god I reeked!! I was NOT prepared for how strong it was going to be. The girls on the deck were freaking out, and the host who had been previously filming me had to retreat away from the smell.
Well, I had been skunked. After what seemed like an hour, but was probably more like 3 minutes, I could see again. Stinky, soaked, and embarrassed, I couldn't help but laugh. But also, the worst had happened, and I still had a dare to finish. I picked up the cage, fearless now, turned towards the girls on the deck and gave it a VERY gentle shake. This, unsurprisingly, earned me another spray around my waist area. I figured since I already stunk, I may as well let the poor guy out of his cage. He scampered off into the woods, leaving me skunked and 'defeated'.
I turned back towards the cottage and discovered most of the girls had gone back inside. I came up, stripped down to my underwear, and hopped into the bathtub. The girls took turns pouring tomato juice all over me, leaving me to soak. All in all, everyone had a good laugh. The rest of the trip they all made jokes about how crazy I was for actually having gone through with it. The smell stunk up the house pretty good, but we googled and learned that boiling some vinegar would help with that, and lo and behold it did!
The smell didn't wash off entirely in the tomato juice, but faded to the point it was tolerable, although I did get some teasing. At the campfire the next night, we burned my skunked clothing.
I wouldn't say it was my favorite experience ever, but it's really not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. And skunks are still pretty damn cute!
