When two out of three dogs came back inside this morning, I didn’t think much about it. For a while. But after patiently waiting for Bud (who we probably should have named “Bart”) to turn up, I decided to step outside and have a look. Sure enough, there he was, patiently waiting – OUTSIDE the gate. It’s been a while (a couple of years, I think) since he made a break for it so I was kind of hoping he’d outgrown that tendency, but once I got him inside I realized what he must have been up to. Mainly, chasing a skunk.

I don’t think he took a full shot, but he got enough to make the bedroom (and my hands, since I of course pet him) stink. And probably the rest of the house, too, though by then I was desensitized to it. Should smell great walking into the house when we get back home today.

Of course the first thing I need to do is go walk the fence perimeter and see if I can figure out where he got out. It was too dark this morning to see anything. Thank goodness it’s supposed to be warm today, at least.

If only things only literally stunk, it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, I’m sure everybody’s got a favorite skunk-smell mitigation recipe, which, if it doesn’t work, at least give you something to do while you get used to the smell. Unfortunately, there’s no magic elixir that will take the stink off this country while he-who-shall-not-be-named is President. I mean, thinks weren’t smelling all that rosy BT.

But now, well, let’s just say it looks like I picked a bad year to quit drinking.