JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for September 24, 2022

Bad Mortimer

I guess that Mortimer is not as smart as I thought.

Fun fact: the reason dogs are so susceptible to (repeated) skunk sprays is that the body language skunks use to say “Back off or else”, dogs interpret as “Hello friend! Have a sniff!”

Are the squirrel and skunk in cahoots?

Dogs are so easily distracted.

Skunks and dogs: serious body language conflict.

Oh oh… Isolation cell and lots of tomato juice baths or something.

It’ll be awhile before he tries sniffing anything again. But the memory and adventure of the chase will grow with the telling.

Oooops!

Many years ago my mom let their dog out for his morning duty. He promptly cold nosed a skunk who let him have it. The dog ran inside and started rubbing on the carpet to get rid of the smell. They eventually got the smell off the dog, but had to replace the carpet.

When we lived on the farm our nearest neighbor was about 5 miles away so we let our dogs roam free. One day the dog my kids discovered tied to a tree on state land while hunting for the always elusive Morel mushroom came home quite badly skunked. We gave him a couple of baths of tomato juice, plus just plain soap and water 3 times. A friend of my, who hunted Pheasants, used to borrow him as apparently he was a great pointer and had a “soft mouth”

Now any criminals he catches will be in REAL trouble!

Let this be a lesson. No matter how “good” you believe your dog to be, you’re a bad owner if you let them off leash in a city park or other place that don’t specifically allow it.

I hope that Joe and Marcy make Jojo wash Mortimer. It’ll serve him right.

Mortimer always sniffs out skunks, both human and weasel kind.

This doesn’t look so… err… SMELL so good.

Of course this happens on a Saturday, so we have to wait 2 days!

About to be smelly Mortimer. Use tomato juice to wash his body

Our dogs had a few similar experiences.

Good thing they were outside dogs.

Uh-oh.

Oy.

Mortimer just flunked K-9 skool. K-9s told t ‘stay’ actually stay and are not distracted unless told to do so.

Oh, that’s right… This takes place in a parallel Universe.

Oh no is so right, then skunk smell out.

It’s what he deserves.

Mortimer’s life is going to stink for a while.

We don’ need no steenkin’ Mortimer.

He will regret it for awhile.

Baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and a little dishwashing liquid as a binder. It actually makes a chemical reaction that will lift the thiols from the skunk scent and Mortimer will smell (mostly) OK.

LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE 1944—-suggested mud baths for skunks.

Mortimer’s going to be famous for the second time—for the wrong reasons.

Poor city dog Mortimer has met his match!