Landers: Readers react to skunk-smell solution

Skunks and dogs, gobblers and deer – both are on the outdoors column agenda today. Buckle up. De-skunking recipe: Last week’s column on the simple, time-proven recipe for removing the odor from a skunk-sprayed dog prompted numerous email and telephone comments. Among them: Charles Waugh wrote: “Yes! The peroxide and baking soda mixture works like magic. “We had a skunk come in through our cat door into our laundry room where it nailed our dog square in the face at 3 a.m.! “Washing him twice with that mixture got rid of all the smell. It also worked for washing the walls in our laundry room, and the floor, too. “But, the skunk smell was still in the curtains and other rugs in the area. So we boiled white vinegar for seven days in the house. It got rid of all the smell. “Our house smelled like a salad for a week but that was much better than it smelling like a skunk!” Comment: Another reason to dislike free-roaming cats. Dee Jones of Colbert wrote: “My husband and I really enjoyed your article on the de-skunking recipe. We have a male German shorthair who has been skunked twice since we moved out on acreage. “Our recipes are similar but I would suggest you specifically recommend Dawn liquid dishwashing soap. It is essential for really dissolving the oils in the skunk spray. “In addition, after the initial scrub down with the ¼-cup baking soda, 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1 teaspoon Dawn dish soap mixture, we let it soak in for at least 30 minutes or until dry. “After rinsing, we soaked our dog in Scope mouthwash (the red one) for about 5 minutes, then rinse him again. The Scope really helps seals the deal.” Comment: Save some of that Scope for the dog breath. Another woman called and said she has a better recipe she’d obtained from the Pet Emergency Clinic when her dog was sprayed by a skunk. “Wash the dog in liquid Tide and rinse with Downy fabric softener,” she said. “Works like a charm.” Comment: This may work, but when I called to verify with Pet Emergency Clinic, I first asked what they recommended for a skunk-sprayed dog. The immediate response was the baking soda, peroxide, soap recipe. “How about using Tide and fabric softener?” I asked. “I’ve never heard that one and I’ve been here 15 years,” the receptionist said. Last chance for turkeys: If you’ve never hunted the last week of Washington’s spring gobbler hunt, it’s worth a try if you haven’t filled your tag. The six-week season closes Friday evening. I filled both of my tags this week. Toms were responsive to calls, but reluctant to come in. The woods were greener and brush was leafed out, making toms more difficult to see if they did approach. As I’ve experienced during the early season, strange things happen when you’re fully camouflaged and sitting quietly in the woods. -Three bucks in velvet came into my decoy ahead of a gobbler and lingered until I tossed a stick at them. They spooked and came back 15 minutes later. -A pair of young does came in and pestered me at 10 yards even as I tried to shoo them away. Another stick toss did the trick, sort of. -A young hen turkey came trotting to my decoy in another setup, flared her tail, strutted, purred and did everything but make love to my decoy. That’s a first for me. But you’ll have to take my word for it. The best part of the Friday-Saturday tag-filling hunts was that I was absolutely alone. Most hunters were done for the season, and now so am I.