We went camping over the weekend with the kids' daycare to Manresa State Beach. We go every year with the same group and always have a good time. This year was not as much fun as normal...
We always bring Daisy Mae as she goes all over the place with us and travels well. The only thing about bringing her to Maresa is the first nite she is up ALL nite wanting to get up and go for her morning run. But after I take her on the run, she is good to go for the rest of the day and spends all day on the beach with us and is on her best behavior.
This year our friends decided to bring their yellow lab, Jeeter. Jeeter is about a year older than Daisy and one of Daisy's friend. Jeeter is a family dog who hangs around the house, which includes all the comings and goings of a busy family. On Saturday, a group of us were heading down to the beach for the day and the kids and I and the two dogs headed down first. Gracie was walking Daisy on a leash and Drew was walking Jeeter on a leash. I was carrying a bunch of stuff and pulling a wagon. Both dogs were well mannered (ie not pulling at the leash) and we were passing folks walking up the hill. Out of now where, Jeeter lunges for an old man and bites him in the butt and arm!!!! We were shocked! Drew pulled him back and I dropped everything and ran to the old man. We still don't know what made him do it, he has never done anything like that before! To make a long story short, the ranger came and found us later in the day and took a report. I thought Drew would start crying when I told the ranger it was him with the leash! Anyway, Jeeter will have to be quarantined in their yard for 14 days. The good news is that Jeeter's family are responsible dog owners and will do whatever is needed to be done.
That whole event was quite traumatic, but little did we know it would get worse....
After dinner, we were all sitting around the campfire. It was a bout 9:30 and I was going to get our toothbrushes from our tent. Daisy had been sleeping in our tent for a couple hours, so when I unzipped the tent she came out. I reached in, got my toothbrush and called her to come back -- she was in the bushes about 5 feet away from the tent and behind Tina's tent. It was at that point that I heard Tina screaming from inside her tent...."Daisy was sprayed by a skunk". And she was right! The smell was horrific - a cross between rotten eggs and burned rubber. It was so bad it made me nauseous and the dog was covered in it. I can not even explain the chaos of the next hour while we sent Jim home with the dog, we moved tents, moved bedding from one tent to another and lit gardenia incense to help with the smell. Poor Marty had skunk smell on his nose from smelling all the items that came out of his tent to see if they were hit by the spray. At one point, he was rubbing tomato under his nose to counter act the skunk smell.
We really thought their tent was a loss because the stench was so bad in it, but it turned out this morning that it was ok.
While we were dealing with the biohazard of the camp site, Jim went home and did some quick internet searching to see what to do with the dog. The recipe for success was peroxide and baking soda - so at 11 pm he is running around SJ buying all the peroxide and baking soda he could find. He washed the dog 4 times last nite and again today. Her body smells better but her head and snout still have skunk odor. As does his truck and the garage. He read on the internet that if you wait to long to wash the dog, the odor can stay in the skin for up to two years!!!!
Jim came back to the campground this morning and helped us pack up camp and we headed home. NEVER have we been so happy to be home! Now if only the dog didn't reek!
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