Good afternoon friends!

I have tried to write several times lately (as my glaring 5 drafts remind me) but today, I feel you may get some laughs so – I am going to get this out!

First, I hope everyone is doing well! I know life can get a bit crazy around the holidays so I want to send some extra love <3.

Back to it.

Wow. As I sit here, I do not even know where to begin. I guess I will start here…

• Work, work, work, work, work, work 
  • My entire leadership/admin team is changing. I am sure some of you have had this experience as well? I am finding it a bit unnerving… like who will they be? What are they going to change? All of these things have been stirring about in my generalized anxiety brain and it has me a bit on edge. We have had the same department heads the entire time that I have been employed here.. sooo….almost 7 years. Yup, now it is out with the old and in with the new by January.  *nervous laughter*
    
    
    

• Relationships
  • Significant other – You know those arguments with your other half (or family/friend) where at one point you just stop and think…how did we get here?  Welp, that was my Friday evening. I also am going to be honest, to this moment – I am still not 100% what the true issue is. Sooo many things get thrown around! So I called a time out/chill moment/flag on the play… unfortunately, it was a little too late. So, I have been doing some reflecting here and there. It was a crazy weekend, as you will read on to see. Unfortunately, things are still not great. I am hoping with the start of the new week, everything will fall back into place. Or not and move on.
    
    
  • Family – Sigh. I may have mentioned before that my family is not very close. I will say, even more so when we start bringing in “step” family. Well. It turns out my step brother (dad’s wife’s son) got married and having a baby, so my grandma had a little get together Saturday afternoon. My father’s “first grandchild” as it was stated. Now, I am in a much better place from when my engagement ended. However, I could not help to feel a little twinge…since younger family members are obtaining the things that I want. My older brothers married women who had kids already, so… I felt it was up to me. Which at this rate, would be a miracle. I am not where I want to be, which is always more common than I think…aka during those times of falling into the rabbit hole. I am trying to remember that for whatever reason, it is not my time. Then when the time comes, hopefully my endometriosis will be okay? Possibly have a kiddo (depending on this country haha). But dammit it still kinda hurt.
    
    **Cue dramatic mental dialogue that took place in my head while shoving pizza down my throat** OH, I AM SORRY I DIDN’T GET DOWN THE ISLE AND GOD KNOWS IF I CAN EVEN HAVE KIDS, CAN WE PUT THAT ON A CAKE TOO!? **End**
    
    I am sure the fight from the previous night maaaayyyy have aided in this LOL. I can only laugh now. Ahem so, that is where I am at there. I have been looking for little baby things so I can get over my bitterness. I think it’s helping :). Happy to report.
    
    
• Skunked Saturday … into Sunday…this is where things get a little comical
  • So regular family gatherings drain this introvert as is, so as you could imagine I was DONE by the time I got home late Saturday afternoon from the celebrations listed above. So I got home, threw on some sweats, Grey’s Anatomy and cuddled with dogs on the couch. Everything was going pretty good with all things considered. Fast forward to the last pee break for the doggos for the night, I would say about 11p or so. When I let the out 2 of 3 dogs they immediately went into chase mode. Clearly they saw the neighbor’s cat and just had to torment it. So off they go, like little brown furry bullets.
    
    Very annoyed me, slips into my rain-boots because…ease. To stomp after these hounds and show them I mean business and save the cat of course.
    
    As I started my mission, I noticed the pups kinda froze. Odd
    Then I thought… well they were beside the a tree so… great now the damn cat is in the tree. We need to get the hell outta here.
    
    As I approach the rebellious hounds, I take in the scene and I think “damn that’s a fluffy cat” however, I didn’t get it all out before I realized that black and white “cat” was spraying my dog in the face. SKUNK.
    
    In fear of being the next target, I start back tracking going “oh no no no no no no no!!!” Shuffling as fast as I could in my business rain-boots.
    
    I needed a plan and asap.
    
    Save the dogs.
    
    Internal screaming thoughts –> Omg the dogs got sprayed by the most horrific smell in the universe. Wtf am I going to do?! So, I try coaxing the pups over as the stench starts attacking my sinuses. They eventually come back (if felt like an eternity..I am sure it was 5 seconds), nose snotty and eyes watery and definitely fucking smelly. Success.
    
    I have had my pups for years (Syd for 5) and successfully dodged the skunk population. I have never had a skunk “close call” or anything…let alone one of the jerks in my little neighborhood.
    
    For whatever reason, (in sheer panic), I run inside (in hopes that by the grace of God – I have tomato juice)… not closing the door fast enough…They run INSIDE THE HOUSE. Spreading the skunk musk for all, my poor blind dog didn’t know what was happening. Her poor nose, my screaming & dogs just wandering about like nothing had just happened. 

My worst nightmare just unfolded before my eyes.

Frantically, I herd the pups out to my garage (sorry Sportster) so I could figure out how to handle this at 11pm. Clearly not in my prime – I head back inside (great skunk smell in the house) to check the cabinets (again). No tomato juice..great. Google here we go, it turns out the tomato thing has been deemed a myth on some sites? So there is that little bit of info. I did find a DIY mix with all the staples in my home, baking soda, peroxide and dish soap? DEAL.

Thank goodness it warmed up this weekend and my hose was actually usable and not a home for icicles. I was outside dousing my poor doggos in this mix, scrubbing (and gagging)  the scent away. There may have been cursing and some shakes that splattered me (and possibly my mouth), but we got through. I truly don’t know how…But I made it out alive. #singledogmomprobs

Sooo. Needless to say, they still had an odor after the first round and the wet/smelly pups had to stay in the garage overnight. Don’t worry, it was warm and I gave them blankets! Annnnnd put my extra Nest cam in there so I could make sure they will be okay. I hated being away from them but…wow.

Finally around 1A? I was able to try to scrub the misery and smell off of me… because I think I also smelled at this point. OR it was my burning sinuses at this point, forever tainting my cavities. Regardless, off to the shower I went. Throwing everything in the wash immediately. To which I did twice, just to be sure…

After gathering myself post meltdown in the shower. Yup, that happened. I returned to Google to try to figure out this house situation. The windows were open already but I had to do more.

Apparently, boiling vinegar will help knock out the odor? Of course your house will smell like vinegar, but at this point – it was welcomed haha. I guess it works? My house cleared up pretty quickly. 

The doggos would have to wait until morning…errr later in the day? for me gather additional supplies for the second wash to HOPEFULLY knock it all out. I used what I had and well, pet stores were not open at this lovely time of the night.

*Fast forward through my hero, my mother brought me some “Skunk Off”, Me waterboarding my dogs again, and dry.**
One still had (has) a faint smell to him. However at this point, I had not slept and stress had pretty much beat me down soooo I figure we can accept this at the moment.

Unfortunately, smelly Barley is the lovable one. He wants to get all up in your face and cuddle.

It has been a struggle.

I started this on Monday and just now (Wednesday) finishing it…because I crashed yesterday. A girl has to sleep and that was stressful hahaha. I apologize if I missed tenses<3

So as of now, nothing has really changed. I still have a smelly-ish doggo. Significant other is still not really talking to me. Soo.. I give up lol.

I just have to laugh at this point because, otherwise I will cry 😉

But I am doing okay. I may be packing my things from the other’s home soon? But I am hanging in there. Anti-depressants are so lovely. They help so much during these crazy times.

ALSO. Do you have any “fun” skunk stories? DO TELL! I don’t want to feel alone!

Until next time,

❤ Kat