Cats and skunks
Posted by Eric Lancaster on
When I lived back in Massachusetts there were a lot of skunks in the area. During the summer you could not mistake the smell. You would be driving along a wooded road and out of nowhere that smell would invade your senses! The thick stench of a nocturnal animal...the skunk. Your mind would flash to the old cartoons of Pepe Le Pu walking around with his tail wafting the odor trail... It you get too close, look out! The smell will bring tears to your eyes. While I was growing up, I always heard horror stories of dogs coming home wreaking of skunk. The only way people knew how to get rid of the smell was with a bath of tomato juice...not only does that sound gross, but it also sounds expensive! One warm summer evening...around 1am...my wife and I had gone to bed. A few minutes later we heard what sounded like a cat fight. Our cat had ticked off the wrong animals. We opened the door to let him in before he got hurt. There was a funny smell that came in the house...there were also two other animals that followed him right in the door: a possum and a skunk!!! Our eyes started tearing up right away. The cat ran into the house, climbing up the couch and down the back of the arm chair and then under the couch, leaving a lovely scent as he went. We managed to get the skunk and the possum out of the house with the assistance of a nice broom. My cat was wet with skunk spray. Without thinking I grabbed him by a handful of skin and fur and threw him in the bathtub. I grabbed a gallon bottle of Activated EM•1® (AEM1) on the way... I held him down...cats don't really like water...and poured the AEM1 all over him. Like magic, the skunk smell was gone. A few scratches later and a warm towel...it was time to treat the rest of the house. A couple of spray bottles helped get the stuff on all the furniture. It took about an hour to spray and wash down everything, but we got rid of the skunk smell on everything we thought the cat had run into. The next morning I had a sales call. I picked up my bag and headed out the house to my appointment, which was an hour away. When I got to the clients house, I realized we missed spraying my bag. It still smelled like skunk. Oh, what a smelly day!
