Skunks and Rio

Skunks.

So for almost a year Rio and I have been walking on the paved walking trail that runs from the Baylor Basketball Arena, behind the baseball park, and down by the law school, all along the Brazos River. It is a very nice walk. We tend to walk at night, because there are less people and Rio can be off leash. In the whole time we’ve been walking (probably 150 walks) we saw a total of 4 stray cats, one night heron, a couple of ducks, a couple of toads, and a small water snake. Never on the same day and never two days in a row… UNTIL yesterday. Yesterday we saw 5 skunks. They crossed the path in front of us and went towards the football field and then immediately crossed back about twenty feet in front of us. Rio was unleashed, but headed my warning to come back and leave those things alone. Rio was excited but listened, and the skunks went merrily down the hillside towards the river. I thought, well that was cool and it worked out good, cause nobody was upset and nobody got sprayed by a skunk. SO CUT TO TONIGHT. I thought I couldn’t possibly see skunks two nights in a row, that would be unprecedented. Of course I was wrong. As we approached the same spot as the night before we see a single skunk safely on the other side of the fence. Rio sees it and immediately freezes and stares it down (through the fence). The skunk sees Rio and immediately raises his tail. That was the sign that I should have leashed Rio back up and run away. Stupid Jason. I thought the skunk would run away, away from the fence and the dog, into the open field and patch of woods. NOPE. It ran right toward Rio, tail up, through the fence and towards the patch of woods between the path and the river. Rio being only so good did what dogs do, she chased it. She in fact, ran it over twice, once racing towards it, and a second time as she turned around for another pass. The skunk being a skunk, hauled ass for the bushes, and after being rolled twice, left Rio with a little noxious spray in the face. The only lucky thing is that evidently skunks can only spray a little bit while running away. But a little skunk goes a long way. Now my truck (we drove to the path), my dog, my clothes, and my apartment smell of skunk. Even after washing the dog in baking soda and body wash everything still smells. Only now it smells like skunk and Suave for Men. F-ing Mondays. F-ing Skunks.skunk