Stinky-Poo shampoo is a Miracle Product!!!

I must tell you about the skunks. When we first moved to the farm, we met skunks. Of course, I had encountered skunks before. But my husband, being from Germany where there are no skunks, had not yet fully experienced them.

He thought he knew about skunks. When he first came to the U.S. he had heard all about skunks. They had cartoons... Pepe le Pew. But as we were driving down a country road one day and a whiff of that notorious scent wafted his direction through the open car window, he was COMPLETELY startled and gasped "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!?!?!?!" I smiled slyly and asked "you don't know what that smell is?!!?"

Shortly after, we purchases a small bottle of pure skunk oil from a local hunting supply store and put it in a fancy perfume bottle and mailed it to his sister in Germany so she could experience and enjoy.

Anyhow.. I digress.

So about 2 days after we had moved into the farm, I was working very late at my job and came home well after dark. Hubby was anxious to show me how tidy and organized the workshop area of the barn was that he'd spent a good chunk of the day unpacking and setting up. So we walked slowly up to the barn in the cool summer night.. all was quiet and peaceful. We walked into the side doorway of the barn and flipped on the light. He stood by the doorway while I walked on in to check out his handywork. I looked up to see a skunk not walking, but RUNNING up the aisleway of the barn straight towards me.

I yelled "RUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN" and nearly ran completely over my husband who was scrambling to get the heck out of the way. He had no idea what was going on. A snake? I slammed the door shut and yelled "SKUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!""

Then it hit us. The toxic cloud of skunk fumes. Those of you who have never been in very close proximity to a very fresh direct skunk spray have no idea of the potency. It doesn't even smell that familiar skunky smell. It's different. It's toxic. You cannot breathe. Horrible stuff. About that time, one of our 3 Border Collie mix dogs, Süße (means "Sweetie" in German), came slinking around from behind the barn. Stupid Me bent down to bury my nose in her neck fur and take a whiff. I about fell off my feet. Yup. She got hit. It was aweful. Indescribable. About that time, the 2nd of our dogs, Lucy, came bouncing around from the other side of the barn and immediately but happily dropped and rolled around in the wet grass, obviously trying to rid herself of the superstink. Hubby and I looked at each other. Geez.. TWO dogs.

Then I thought... where's Butchie (our 3rd dog). Oh dear. Surely I didn't slam the barn door and lock him in there with the skunk. I called for him and whistled and eventually he appeared out of the darkness. I gave him the sniff test (from a more respectable distance this time) and sure enough, he'd been hit too. What are the chances of ALL THREE DOGS getting hit at the same time.. close range.. direct hits... unbelievable.

We ran to the house to escape the toxic cloud of stink. What to do? Keep in mind, these are dogs that are used to sleeping indoors curled up on our bedroom floor at night. NOW WAY were we going to let them inside. So we put them in the cellar until we could figure something out. It was semi-cozy down there. Concrete walls and floor. Clean and dry. Nice bright lights. Comfy dog beds. They were dogs, for crying out loud.

I went inside and immediately began searching the Internet for a remedy. Baths were imminent but what to use to combat the stink? I found a posting for skunk-detox that used a homemade concoction I knew well and had used before for cat or dog "accidents" on carpet and car seats when NOTHING else would. But hello, SKUNKS???? I would never have believed it. And it's incredibly simple... and incredibly cheap.

1 bottle of peroxide (about 50 cents) and 1/2 Cup baking soda. Squirt in a small dab or 2 of liquid dish soap for sudsiness. That's it. Use it on carpets, material, dogs, hair, whatever. It works FAST (almost instantly) and it WORKS!!!!

But for skunks? I wasn't so sure. So I went to my cabinet where all my pet supplies were and found some dog shampoo someone had given me called "Stinky Poo Shampoo". I had never used it. Had no idea where it came from. I laughed. Yeah right. But what the heck. So I grabbed it and also mixed up a potion of the peroxide/baking soda and headed outside with my arsenal of weapons to retrieve the dogs from the cellar.

They looked annoyingly happy with themselves. We had an assembly line of dog-washing.. sudsing them up and letting them soak several minutes and rinsing off.

To make an already-too-long story short, both remedies work and work FANTASTICALLY WELL. I highly recommend "Stinky Poo Shampoo" to EVERYONE". Also the peroxide/baking soda concoction works equally well. Amazing. Who would have thought? We ordered more Stinky Poo from their website. (It's made somewhere in Tennessee, by the way.) The dogs were sprayed about 5 more times in the next 3 days and a momma skunk and her littler of 4 babies were seen lounging around in the barn thereafter. Yay. The peroxide/baking soda works just as well but doesn't smell near as nice or lather quite as well.

They say there are 2 kinds of dogs. Those that learn about skunks after the first encounter, and those that NEVER learn. I know what kind my dogs are. I have 4 bottles of peroxide stashed in my pet supplies cabinet and inquired about purchasing "Stinky Poo" in bulk.