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Every day Abbey Road and I get up very early for our morning walk. Well, to be truthful, she wakes me up and I stumble out of bed to accommodate her. Last week the morning began just has they have for the last year. I wake up, I get dressed, make coffee and out the door we go. Something was obviously amiss this morning because instead of making coffee I opened the door and realized it was going to be a scorcher. I made a quick decision to walk then to avoid the heat when the sun rose. So, at 5:30 on a lovely Tuesday morning we headed out. We usually turn right on the trail, but like I said there was something strange in the air. I turned left.

Now I’d been saying to Earl what an obedient wonderful dog Abbey Rd. is and how I’ve been letting her off lead and she just stays with me always keeping her eyes on me. “It’s so cute and isn’t she the best dog ever?” We rounded the corner away from the street and I reached down and unsnapped Abbey’s lead. Off she went into the weeds with great urgency. That didn’t bother me, after all she’s obedient, she watches me, she comes when I call. Ha! Thirty minutes later the sun is rising and I still have not located her. Of course, I had come without my glasses or my cell phone and I’m thinking, “I’m going to have to go home and tell Earl that I’ve lost Abbey Rd. and he’s going to kill me!”

Quickly, I run back home, run up the stairs, grab my glasses and tell Earl in his groggy state that I have lost the dog. He jumps out of bed and heads to the trail with no shoes. We both call and whistle and all the things we’ve done for the past year to get our sweet, obedient dog to come to us. She doesn’t listen to him either. We decide to split up. I’ll go across the 27 acres to the other side of the trail and we’ll try to flush her out from either side. No avail. Finally, I see a man talking to Earl and Earl taking off to what I think is the school down the street. I cross the field toward him, but when I get there he is no where to be found. I run to the school, searching, calling, nothing. I head back home and try to think what is the next step. Flyers? Pictures on street signs? Call for a sub? What?

Just then I see Earl waving to me. When we catch up with each other he tells me that the man said he saw Abbey heading toward the neighborhood. When he got to our street, there was Abbey Rd. sitting on the front porch as if to say, “What took you so long?”

“How is she?”, I ask.

“I put her in the backyard so you could check her out before I let her inside.” He replied.

Warning bells, red flags go up. I head around the side of the house and Abbey Rd. runs to me. Before she is 20 feet away I smell the most horrendous smell. You guessed it. Skunk! It seems Peppy LaPew was the big attraction for our Abbey Rd. This is the critter that caused her to totally ignore her loving guardians?

 

I began barking out orders as only I can do in an emergency.  “Bring me the dog shampoo and google how to get rid of a skunk smell!” And I went to work washing down my obedient dog at 6:30 on a lovely Tuesday morning. Earl came with a mixture he’d found on the internet; peroxide, baking soda and liquid detergent. Abbey got a liberal amount of that solution dumped on her and another bath. Needless to say Abbey Rd. was an outside dog that day. She also was put in her kennel with the door attached for the night.

The next day more peroxide solution and I began to notice an occurance. Subtle though it might be. It had nothing to do with the lessening of the skunk smell, but rather the color of my beautiful black dog’s hair especially around her face. It seems the peroxide we have used for years to lighten our hair also works on dog’s. Abbey Rd. is now in possession of the lovliest brown/purple highlights! Some think this was her intent from the very beginning. Others think she has a bit of a rebellious streak as brought on by being owned by me. I really can’t say which it is, but I will tell you that Abbey Rd. has not been off lead since then. Nor have I been on the trail without glasses and a cell phone! Lesson learned!

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