“If it wasn’t for coffee, I’d have no discernible personality at all.”
Henry had a first experience last night. He came running in the dog door, and I was amazed he actually used the dog door and didn’t signal me to come open the door then I noticed. Henry was frantic. He was shaking his head back and forth and had foam covering his mouth. I tried and couldn’t catch him. I grabbed a wet paper towel, and I finally grabbed Henry and cleaned his eyes and mouth. Henry had met his first skunk. I grabbed my Nature’s Miracle skunk odor remover and washed Henry’s face. He didn’t move the whole time. After a couple of rinses, I had a headache and had gagged a couple of times, but old Henry smelled like himself; however my house smelled like skunk. I turned off the AC, opened windows, took something for my headache then went upstairs to bed. Henry hadn’t gotten upstairs in his skunky state so my bedroom was fine for sleeping. This morning I went on the deck and then came back inside to check the smell. The house still has a faint whiff of skunk. Thanks, Henry, for sharing the experience.
When I was a kid, I remember watching my first skunk waddle across the grass. I also remember not getting close enough to trigger the defensive blast of skunk. Back then tomato juice was the suggested go to for skunk stench removal. It doesn’t work, but it does sell a lot of tomato juice. I keep Nature’s Miracle on hand and have since Shauna, my first boxer, got skunked in the face. After a few rinses of the stuff, Shauna smelled just like Shauna and not Pepe Le Pew.
The afternoon is already hot at 85˚, the predicted high. The clouds will stay all day while the sun will be back and forth. Henry and Nala are having their first naps of the day. Henry is in the kitchen while Nala is beside me on the couch. The poor dogs are exhausted from playing up and down the hall, from chasing each other. I need a nap.
This morning I had toast and coffee. I shared both. Most times coffee is enough, but I was hungry and too lazy to cook eggs so toast was perfect. I do like eggs in almost every form. If cooking for myself, I usually fry or scramble the eggs.
In Ghana, most things were fried in peanut, aka groundnut oil, readily available in the market, and that included my morning eggs. They were delicious and nicely browned around the edges. In the hotels, you always get breakfast as part of the room rate. Each hotel offered a variation of breakfast, but all of them included coffee, fried eggs and toast. Sometimes there was porridge or fruit, mostly bananas and oranges. In my two years living there and on all three visits, I had the same breakfast every morning and liked it. I even got used to that awful coffee, instant with condensed milk. I kept telling myself it is coffee after all.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 7, 2021 at 2:56 pm
Hi Kat,
My old cat Cajy got skunked when he was a kitten. It was a cold, rainy February night. Someone let him in the house and he stunk up the whole place but when I picked him up to sniff him, he didn’t smell. I think you have to get a distance away from the skunk smell for it to reach its full potential. I took Cajy out to the back steps and dowsed him with a quart of tomato juice. The freezing rain helped not at all. Then I took him into the bathroom and gave him several baths after which I tied him into the bonnet of my mother’s old hair dryer. He was not pleased but cats are prone to upper respiratory infections so into the dryer he had to go. His wet body fit perfectly and the drawstring on the bonnet snugged up nicely around his head. I set him on warm and let the dryer do its job. When he came out he was soooo fluffy. And sooo very angry. 😀 But he never got skunked again.
It’s hot up here and cloudy. My house is cool with just the fans running and the drapes on the sunny side closed.
Enjoy your day.
August 7, 2021 at 7:23 pm
Hi Caryn,
The poor cat. Poor you! Dogs are bad but cats are over the top. They do hate a batch despite eau d’skunk. I have to think the cat would have actually enjoyed the warmth of the dryer. Cats do love heat. One of mine used to sleep in front of the kitchen vent.
I need to reopen the door and windows as there is still a bit of a whiff of skunk. I went through the yard and can’t figure out how the skunk got into the yard with the fence around it. I found no holes. I’m left with a mystery!
It is cooler now that the sun is gone. It will be a hot week.
Enjoy your Sunday!
August 8, 2021 at 5:24 pm
He probably didn’t mind being warm after the freezing winter rain and cold tomato juice. But he’d had a warm bath which angered him followed by the indignity of being tied inside one of those vinyl bonnets that hair dryers used to come with. Except for his head, of course.
August 8, 2021 at 7:52 pm
Cats aren’t the sad souls dog are when washed. They are scrappy creatures.
August 7, 2021 at 9:50 pm
Hi Kat,
I didn’t belive that tomato juice would get rid of the skunk stink. I bet Henry has learned his lesson and will no longer be curious about skunks.
Today we took a road trip to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. It’s about a three hour drive each way to the reserve from Grapevine. It’s located just north of Lawton Oklahoma which is also the home of The Fort Sill Army Base. We saw an unfenced heard of Long Horn cattle but not one bison. The reserve is famous for their herds of free bison. We did visit the “Holy City” and the prairie dog town.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Mountains_Wildlife_Refuge
The sky was clear blue with a very few puffy white clouds by the afternoon. I only got one cup of coffee before we left at about 8:30 and returned home at about 8:00. We packed sandwiches, snacks and drinks. A long drive but a fun experience.
August 8, 2021 at 2:31 am
Hi Bob,
I don’t know about Henry. He is a smart boy, but he also is a chaser. I just hope he’ll avoid any other snakes in the grass.
The site looked like the refuge has a lot of different animals. I guess you just have to be lucky to be there at the right time. On a trip to Colorado during moose rutting season, we chose not to take the bust tour and went on our car. We found a male with a harem of 8 females and a couple of babies. Another male came looking but realized he was smaller than the male so the other moose left. The whole thing was so cool to watch. The bus came too late.
It stayed warm today. I went nowhere. m
August 8, 2021 at 2:03 am
Now you know that Henry can manage the dog door all by himself.
Ha Ha!! Our dogs train us quite well.
August 8, 2021 at 2:34 am
Tracey,
He came in the door one other time when I rang the bell, but I could only trick him with the bell once. He is a smart boy. He seems to come in only if there is an emergency like someone at the door or now if he gets hit with skunk odor. I have left him outside for a while to see what he would do. He did nothing. Just waited. I let hime inside.
August 8, 2021 at 7:46 am
Argh! Skunked! You might have to take some Nature’s Miracle on a paper towel or something and wipe down the dog door too. It’s funny how our noses, inadequate compared to a dog’s, can pick up any trace of skunk musk on surfaces.
Nice set today, all highly enjoyable.
August 8, 2021 at 11:47 am
Rowen,
I never thought about the dog door. That is about all he touched as he ran around the house in a frenzy. Now, every time I pat him. I smell my hand.
Thanks on the music!
August 8, 2021 at 11:56 am
I’m so glad we don’t have skunks here 🙂 🙂 I know Albin would have been skunked and I’m pretty sure Alma would have been too. Nova is just not interested enough in other animals so I’m pretty sure she would avoid it.I do think skunks are cute tthough 🙂
We’ve just had a ferocious thunderstor passing by, lots of lightnings and heavy showers, I enjoyed it to the fullest 🙂 Now the sun shines again andf outside is cool and nice 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
August 8, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Hi Christer,
Skunks are pretty cute. The waddle when they walk which is also cute. Their only drawback is defensive: that horrible smelling spray. Maggie never chased anything. Gracie caught a baby squirrel and a possum and once cornered a raccoon which could have hurt her, but I grabbed her and chased away the raccoon.