Potion works magic on skunk odor

It wasn’t just an odor; it was like being enveloped by an evil presence. I felt a viselike grip around my head, my stomach start to roil, and my eyes sting as I tried to not inhale. The malfeasance clung around me, held me gasping in its wicked grip.

No, I wasn’t Harry Potter being menaced by Dementors or Frodo paralyzed by the frightful Black Riders of Mordor. No, there wasn’t a toxic chemical accident nearby.

I was just facing my dogs, who had been sprayed full on by a skunk.

They say God had a sense of humor when he created the skunk, but I, like many pet owners when faced by this odious scenario, certainly wasn’t laughing.

If you have never smelled skunk spray, up close, you will never believe the power that little creature can pack. The faint wisp you may smell where a skunk was hit by a car is just a mere hint of the true awfulness that can emanate from the scent glands of this member of the weasel family.

Skunk spray is a defensive mechanism that skunks use when they feel threatened. There are several species of skunk. They are nocturnal and live in woods and on the edges of human habitations.

But, since urban areas are constantly sprawling into skunk habitat and because we inadvertently provide habitat and food for them, these encounters are bound to happen.

Skunks aren’t bad. They hunt rodents and insects.

You can prevent skunks from moving in too close by keeping garbage in closed containers and not leaving pet food outside at night. If you do leave food for outdoor cats, place it on a table at least three feet off the ground.

One thing to be careful of with skunks, and with any wildlife, is the threat of rabies. If you see a skunk behave strangely, not showing fear or acting unusually aggressive or lethargic, stay away and contact your local public health department or wildlife officer. This is a good time to remind you of the importance of having all of your pets consistently vaccinated against rabies.

But none of this was going through my head the first time that my dogs encountered a skunk.

I tried everything — tomato juice, vinegar — to try to wash them, and nothing seemed to help much. The smell slowly wore off the dogs.

Over the years, this picture has replayed: a late-night jaunt for the dogs, the overwhelming odor that leaves me nauseated and weak, ending in an ineffectual bath.

Last week I opened the door for my dogs and was again wrapped in the maleficent aura of skunk spray. But this time I was saved by a wizard, and alchemist with a magic potion.

The moment I sponged the mixture onto my dogs, I could feel the odor dissipating and the viselike grip around my head seem to loosen. It was doing battle with the evil odor and winning!

And the best part is that the magic potion was made from common household items you might have on the shelf — or can get at an all-night grocery.

Sometimes the best discoveries come when you least expect them. Back in the early 1990s, Paul Krebaum, a Lisle, Ill., chemist, was working at his passion, developing adhesives, when he experimented with some of the compounds that producing hydrogen sulfide gas ( the main component in skunk spray). This, as you can imagine, did not make him popular with others who worked there, so he developed a deodorizing formula.

Then a colleague, whose cat had been sprayed by a skunk, asked if the formula worked on skunk spray.

“I had a strong feeling it would work on skunk spray. I just ‘tweaked’ the formula so it could be used on animals without harm,” said Krebaum.

“What was unexpected was how well it worked. I still expected the cat would be pretty darn stinky … just not ‘eye-watering at three yards’ stinky. So I was surprised when my friend (and many others since) told me the next day that the odor was almost undetectable.”

Krebaum submitted his experiences to the news column of Chemical and Engineering News.

Here is how it works:

• Mix 1 quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide with a quarter-cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and a teaspoon of liquid detergent.

• Don’t wet your pet first, but sponge the mixture on, staying away from nose, mouth and eyes.

• After 5 minutes, rinse with water.

The mixture can not be made up in advance, and you cannot store it in an enclosed container, as it is releasing oxygen gas, which could break the container. But the ingredients are pretty easy to have on the shelf.

The mixture could bleach your clothes, and it may bleach your pet to a lighter color (I heard this warning, but my three dogs stayed black).

Additional information on contending with skunk spray on pets or objects can be found on Krebaum’s Web site, (http://home.earthlink.net/ ~skunkremedy/home), including a chemical explanation of how this works, for the curious at heart. I hope you won’t need this, but it is nice to have the magic formula just in case you do.