We were having a fun family movie night in the basement on Friday night. The Lorax was a fun watch again and the little ones loved it! We have been humming "Let it Grow" ever since the movie! We came upstairs to get ready for bed and Matthew let Ginger, our house dog, out to pee. It's what we do every night before bedtime. When he opened the door to let her back in, Matthew hollered! "Oh my word!!!!! There goes a skunk!!!!" A skunk went running across our back porch! In less than a second, we could smell the skunk did spray! I said, "Did the skunk spray outside or get Ginger?" By now, Ginger is inside and when I took one look at her I grabbed a towel and then grabbed her!!!! She had green slime on her face and under her mouth. Her left eye had a streak of blood going down it. Did the skunk attack her? As quickly as I could think and move, I put Ginger in the laundry sink and searched for some gloves! I grabbed a sock that was lying on the dryer to cover my mouth and nose because the smell was almost more than I could handle. By now, the kids were upstairs and Mike told them to grab clean pjs and head to the Yukon! The smell was so bad that we could hardly breathe! It was a good idea to take them out to Lena's house ASAP!!!! Matthew helped them gather their things and go to the Yukon. Hadassah started opening up all the house windows! Mike grabbed two quarts of tomato juice from my cellar downstairs and I poured that over Ginger. It didn't seem to help a bit. He also closed all the bedroom doors and opened up those windows. The smell was so terrible and SO STRONG!!!!
I grabbed my COVID-19 mask and that helped a teeny bit! I had to get this smell off of Ginger as soon as I could! I was shouting out orders to my family and everyone helped where they could! I told Hadassah to search Pinterest to see what to use on Ginger. As I washed Ginger in the laundry sink, I kept dumping Dawn soap on her! Her eye stopped bleeding and the acid stopped burning her eye. Hadassah found a recipe we tried! 1/2 cup baking soda, a squirt of Dawn soap, and a full bottle of hydrogen peroxide!!!! I mixed it in a bucket and took Ginger to the garage sink. If I would have thought of that first, that would have helped with the smell that now lingers in the laundry room! I poured the mixture over Ginger and held her still in the garage sink for 5 minutes. I washed her again and again with more Dawn soap as she was trying to even figure out what happened to her! She was shaking so much but did really good through the whole ordeal! When I finally stopped washing her, I took another towel and dried her. Then we put her in her cage in the garage and went to focus on the house smell!!!!
How in the world do you get skunk spray out of your house after your house dog ran around the dining room table, back to the hallway bathroom and that's when I grabbed her to stop her from spreading the smell! Meanwhile, Mike took the little ones and Matthew out to Lena's. It was almost 11:00 PM. They were tired and smelled from skunk. When he came back home, Hadassah and I were still trying to think of a way to help rid of the smell! All the windows were open! Mike started a campfire on the back porch and lit a cedar wood long stick of wood and went room to room in the house. He thought this would help chase out the smell! I thought it was a good idea but I didn't want a fire on top of all this yet! He told Hadassah to burn something on the stove! Eggs or hot dogs ... anything he said!!!! :)))) It's so funny to now look back and see how we each respond to bad things like this quickly! I grabbed Ginger and Mike thought of a fire!!!!
Hadassah soon went to Jess's house and the minute she walked into Gerald's, they smelled her! So bad! Verna took all her clothes and immediately washed them in baking soda and vinegar! I thought of baking soda too and took what I had from my kitchen cabinet and sprinkled it on the basement steps. I thought Ginger went down the stairs. I left the baking soda on the carpet until the next morning.
Mike and I were tired. We stank so bad!!!! We went out back and decided to laugh! What is God trying to teach us??? This is such a horrible smell to deal with at 11:30 PM!!! I decided to change my clothes and go to Lena's to sleep too. I knew that when Austin wakes in the morning, he would cry for me! Lena got up one more time to let me in her house and as I laid on their basement couch, I prayed for God to put me to sleep as I breathed in their wood stove smelling pillow and my skunk smelling hair.
Mike is taking out his cedar wood!
Mike decided to sleep at home with the windows all open and the diffusers going non stop! He doesn't sleep good other places. He actually had a sore throat for the next three days from breathing it in. When he got up Saturday morning, he went to the garage and let Ginger out. She was happily waiting to be left out and seemed totally fine! I didn't know if it would be enough to take her life or make her blind. I just didn't know.
The next morning, the kids and I woke up and I really didn't feel like going home to such a mess but we had to! When we got home, Ginger was happy to see us! We were happy to see she was fine! I took a shower and washed my hair. The smell was still bad in the house but having the windows open all night helped a lot!!! I also thought that washing up the floors would maybe help lift up the smell that came in with Ginger! It did!!!! The Pine sol smell was a nice strong scent in the kitchen!
I called Jody and she brought over some white vinegar and more baking soda! These two ingredients help eliminate odors! She put baking soda on the dining room rug. I had a slight headache and wanted breakfast and coffee! Mike had a meeting in the morning but after that he brought Matthew and I some breakfast wraps from Stoltzfus Meats! I had to dump out the coffee beans and start with a fresh batch for my cup of joe and the ice from the fridge smelled so back of skunk. All other foods seemed to be OK! Austin had a bowl of fruit loops and Ashlyn ended up going with Jody back to her house for the day! Austin did join them at lunch time!
I also called up my mother in law and asked if she would come help us shampoo the carpets. I wanted this done anyway and now it was necessary!!!! She came over and we shampooed all the carpets! I wiped the floors again! The smell was not too bad by the time we were finished! Thank the Lord he gave us a nice day to have all the house windows open the entire day!
Jody entertained the little ones all day. Matthew helped move the furniture while we cleaned carpets. Mike helped with whatever needed to be done! Hadassah was out cleaning. It took everyone's help to help us rid of the smell as best as we knew how!!!!
We did sleep at the house that night. The windows had to be closed because it was getting chilly outside.
Thank you everyone that helped us through this!!!! We do hope that we don't smell like skunk when we actually do get out of the house!
