Skunked!

Last night around ten I took Jin out to let him do his business one last time. It's summertime and the grass is green and small animals are out of hibernation, and Jin's kind of been experiencing sensory overload every time we go outside. Last night he saw something and went a little nuts straining at the leash. In fact, he pulled so hard that he managed to break free of his leash, something that has never happened before. One frenzied loop around the trash bins later, he was gone.

I took a walk around the block that Jin likes to visit, in the hopes of running into him. He actually did make an appearance, but wouldn't come near me, and disappeared into the bushes again before I could do anything about it. Finally I just came home. I felt a bit helpless, but also a bit indifferent. I couldn't even really think what to do about it. It was late and no one was out and about to come across Jin and call me, which is what normally happens. So I folded my laundry, talked to my dad and assured him that I was not moving to Australia (this was not the first unpleasant surprise of the day), changed into my pajamas, checked outside to be sure Jin hadn't come home, and finally just went to bed. I couldn't think of anything else to do. I slept surprisingly well, and when I woke up, at first I didn't remember that my dog was missing. Then I heard a bark outside.

Oh Jin, I thought as I jumped out of bed. I opened my front door and stepped out and felt disappointed that he wasn't waiting right there. It must have been someone else's dog I heard. I was about to turn around and go back in when I caught a sign of movement Jin stepped out from the trees. "Jin!" I called. "You came home!" He limped a few steps and stared at me. I made my way up to him, barefoot, and tried to coax him down to our door, but he resisted me, and that's when I lost it. He was covered with grass, limping, trembling, disoriented, and smelling of skunk, and he wouldn't even follow me indoors. I just started crying, all that worrisome indifference from the night before completely erased.

I finally managed to get him indoors, which was a mistake because now my apartment smells like skunk, though I don't really know what else I could have done. He's an indoor dog, and I don't have a good outdoor spot for him to stay while I try to deal with the scent. I've given him a bath and scrubbed him down with, like, half the bottle of apple-scented dog shampoo, but when I got home from my morning run the apartment stunk. So for the moment Jin is banished to the porch, with his leash secured just inside the screen door. After last night's ordeal, he's docile enough that he's just lying there (that wouldn't normally be the case). But I'm going to have to do something about this.

I feel kind of bad for him. This has to be one of the most confusing 12 hours of his life. He runs away, finds himself finally free to chase those animals he always dreams of chasing and meets with disastrous consequences, then is forced to spend the night outside instead of on his comfortable pillow by his owner's bed. And once, scared and limping, he finally makes it home, instead of being loved and let be he finds himself doused with cold water and banished to the porch. Poor guy.