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Dexter once again did battle with his arch enemy, the smelly cat. And once again, Dexter lost.

My hubby let our early-rising dogs out Saturday morning just after 5, with full plans to bring them back in and head back to bed. Ah, it was not to be. He hollers up the stairs at me that we have another skunk emergency.

I would have figured that out anyway as I stumbled from my deep sleep and got a noseful of the rank odor wafting through our house.

We go into emergency clean-up mode, segregating the non-skunked dogs from the one who reeks, gathering the ingredients for the magic skunk-busting elixir, and choosing what old towels I won't mind tossing once we are done.

We need to fill up a bucket with the proper ratio of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap (recipe follows after the jump.) My hubs asks me how many cups are in a quart.

Did I mention it's not yet 6 a.m. on a Saturday, I am only half-awake, and I really hate number problems? This question almost caused a meltdown on my part. (The answer is four, by the way.)

The mixture does have to be in the right proportions and slathered on the dog immediately or it won't be as effective. We conjure up the potion on our screened porch and drench our poor dog in it, and all the while he is slobbering profusely because we are pretty sure he got sprayed right in the mouth and neck area.

Then we hose him off and he runs and shakes a little, rub him down in clean towels, light every scented candle, spray the contents of all the Febreeze and Glade aerosols we had, and head to the family room to watch SportsCenter.

What else do you do with a sad, wet dog in a smelly house at 6 a.m. on a Saturday?

Dexter felt pretty sorry for himself the rest of the day. He snoozed and dreamed on the couch a lot, no doubt reliving his defeat at the tail of Pepe LePew, wondering where he went wrong. He had to be escorted into the back yard for potty breaks because he was afraid the offending beast was still lurking somewhere.

I wonder if he looked a little suspiciously at Thai the rest of the day.

By Sunday he was feeling more secure and today he was fine. No lasting damage done.

Moral of the story: The skunks are out there folks. Keep this recipe handy and hope this doesn't happen to you.

From lavplourde.tripod.com:

Skunk Smell Remover

1 quart (that's four cups, in case you are half awake) of 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tbsp dish detergent (the stuff for washing dishes in the sink, not something for dishwashers)

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, because it will boil up like Vesuvius. We are, after all, making an oxygen generator.

Wash the dog with this while it is still foaming, because it is the oxygen which reacts with the thiols in the skunk stink to neutralize the odor. If it sits around, it will lose it's efficacy because the oxygen boils off.

Don't try to store it in an airtight container, because it will blow up.

The brew also works for clothes, humans and unlucky cats.