skunk!

aagghh! our house and dog smell like skunk! when we let dixie back in from her evening sojourn last night, DH was afraid that something was burning (namely, our air conditioning unit, because it recently fried internally and we had to replace the motor). because fresh skunk actually doesn't smell like what you smell on the roads. it smells like burnt rubber or burnt plastic. we didn't realize this until dixie had run upstairs and was rubbing her nose on our carpet ... aaagghhh!

so she got a bath for a solid half hour last night. along with the dog shampoo we used tomato soup (we didn't have any juice), diluted vinegar, and a mix of hydrogen peroxide / baking soda / dawn in water. she actually smells pretty good now except for the front of her left ear, which still smells like skunk. everything else smells like soap - it doesn't even smell like wet dog! (which is a little scary but it's better than skunk)

i couldn't sleep well last night because our room smelled like skunk, despite covering the carpet with cleaner, spraying febreze everywhere, and making dixie sleep in the garage. so i went to walmart at 6am and got a ton of tomato juice and several other things, and gave her another bath. her ear still smells. she's banished outside and has been whining like crazy, until i gave her a gigantic rawhide bone that i've been saving for just this purpose. good thing it rained outside last night so the smell is less pungent.

so now i'm working on the house. this is what i'm doing:
- sprayed carpet cleaner all over the top floor and vacuumed
- set out bowls of baking soda and coffee granules everywhere
- sprayed ozium everywhere (an air sanitizer i read about on the internet)
- load of laundry in progress
- baking cinnamon / nutmeg / ginger (mostly just cinnamon) at 250 in the oven

i called the vet this morning and he recommended: dropping some mineral oil in her eye to protect it, then washing alternately with dog shampoo, lemon juice and massengale douche daily for the next few days. back to the store.