Slice of Heaven

We've been Skunked!!!

I guess it was inevitable...we have had problems with skunks around the house this fall, and smell them often, but last night Luke finally crossed paths with the skunk. The critter sprayed our deck and the front of our house, and at some point sprayed Luke as well. Poor thing, it got him right in the face! So we looked it up to see what we ought to do and we washed his eyes out last night, but that was about it since it was late.

This morning Eric and I made up a bath for him with warm water (it's 60 degrees outside today), lots of vinegar, baking soda and detergent. Have you ever tried to give a cat a bath? I hadn't until today, so it was quite an adventure! He actually did really well at first, I guess the warm water felt nice and he liked being rubbed. However, he quickly tired of it all and spent most of his time trying to get out of the tub. He never tried to scratch me or claw at me. I had a pretty good grip on his leg, so he wasn't going anywhere till I let go of him!

He kept getting one paw over the edge of the tub which actually was nice so I could scrub him under his belly. Does he look happy? Not too sure about that!
Poor thing, he looks so skinny and forlorn with his fur all wet! As soon as I let him out he shook off like a dog and was off! Haven't seen him since...don't think he trusts me too much.

As for the skunk smell, it's not totally gone by any means, but he is much better. At least we got all those nasty oils out of his fur. I imagine the scent will linger for some time.

As for the skunk, we are researching options in how to get rid of it. We have a have-a-heart trap, and feel confident we can trap it, but what then? Any suggestions?