"No, mom! They've got a skunk -- a skunk, it's a SKUNK -- and they have it by its neck right now and it's a big mess and Cindy next door is coming over to help and I'm trying to call Steve because he's at a meeting and the dogs are still in the backyard with the skunk and I'm not sure what to do!" Sophie shouted.
"Put me to bed," Bandar ordered, unfazed.
So began the drama last night at around 9 o'clock.
In the backyard, Siegfried From KAOS, our 5-year-old Jack Russell terrier, had a skunk in a death grip by the neck, shaking it violently. Sheba, his 3-year-old half-sister, looked on and barked, ran up to the skunk and barked, ran back to our house and barked and ran back to the skunk. And barked.
All the while, Sophie ran down to Siegfried and his quarry yelling for him to get away, ran back to the house with Sheba to try to get her away, ran back to Siegfried and yelled, and ran back to the house to get the phone to try to call her husband and the next-door neighbor for help and ran back to Siegfried. And yelled.
And Bandar lay on the couch in the parlor, wanting desperately to go to bed.
Since Sophie never reached me by phone, I arrived home to see Cindy and Sophie in the garage with both dogs tied up, one receiving a bath while the other howled in discomfort. The skunk had met its end. Cindy and Keith had helped to lure Siegfried away from his kill.
My coming home was Sophie's cue that she could go into the house and get her mom ready for bed. Bandar slept through the night.
