Woes of a Dog Owner

The subjects....

Last night our lovely huskies made a break for it, and succeeded.  While they are out I always worry about two things; getting hit by a car and hurting someone or killing someone's animals.  I usually call for them and watch hoping I can guide them safely across the road when they finally appear.  There are some flaws with this process. 

1. Who knows where the heck they go, and there certainly isn't anyone helping them cross the road wherever that is.
2. They never come back from where they left.  They always run across the road into the field.  The last time I saw them come back they came on Route 14 headed north.  I think if it ever came to it I could hook them up to a sled or a wheeled cart and do without a vehicle.

I gave up calling for them and went back to laying the slate floor in the entry way.  The windows were open and I figured I would hear them when they came back.  As the time passed I got more and more worried.  I kept thinking I heard car doors closing and my stomach would wrench because I was certain it was someone coming to let me know they hit my dogs.

I finally heard their collars outside the window and breathed a huge sigh of relief at their safe return.  As I drew in my breath after the sigh I realized that their homecoming, although safe, was not worthy of a sigh of relief.

You know when you are driving and you pass a dead skunk and smell their distinctive odor and you crinkle your nose and say or think, "ewww skunk" then you swerve and give the roadkill a wide berth because you know that stink clings?  That is not actually what a skunk smells like.  True skunk smell is sharp and rubbery and shrivels your nose hairs.  Then as it enter your lungs the cells contract and become sheathed in armor (not a scientific description) in an effort to protect themselves from that noxious poison, and it becomes hard to breathe.

From the entryway I smelled the roadkill skunk smell.  When I went out to get the dogs, I hit a wall of "run away" and "batten the hatches soldier (that was from the lung cells) the enemy is upon us" smell.  Those fool animals found a skunk.  Then in an effort to clean themselves they swam in a mucky marsh.  They stunk and they were black with sludge.  I washed them with a solution of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and grease cutting soap, then rewashed them with yummy smelling shampoo.  

They will be spending a great deal of time outdoors, and I find myself wondering if it would really be so bad to hear a car door shut and have to apologize profusely and write a check for the loss of chickens.  I think it would be faster and easier, and less...skunky.

Why couldn't they have have gone after this kind of skunk!