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Brains and fireworks? I don’t think so…
Gun powder smoke hangs heavy all over the city. Which is strange because for a state where fireworks are illegal and the city even has ordinances against the use of sparklers we saw plenty of them going off tonight.
I don’t mind the free shows, I rather enjoy them, but I do get angry when some people are dumb enough to set them off close to homes. It seems to me that that these people don’t have the brains they were born with once they have fireworks in their hands. All night we heard fire trucks going past—we live near two fire stations—you can bet that some idiots somewhere set a roof or two on fire.
Give some people fireworks and their brains take a walk without them. Many years ago, I saw an M80 with a short fuse peel the meat off three of my father in law’s fingers, his thumb, and half his hand, right to the bone, the damage to the nerves was severe and the resulting scars were a horror to behold. The following year I was at a picnic where a fool tossed M80’s underneath people’s chairs and thought it was hysterical. At least he did until he threw one under my MIL’s chair. At which point I grabbed the culprit by the front of his shirt and threatened to set off a few in his pants. The whole idea of roasting his chestnuts (and not by an open fire) put a damper on his high spirits.
Unless you live way out in the country and you know what you are doing, leave the fireworks to the professionals, and don’t give them to children to play with. Ask anyone who works the ER on the fourth; they see all the bad injuries.
Skunky? Here are some odor removal formulas.
My friend in OK sent me her skunk out formula. Her Husband is a cop and she’s mentioned in the past that this formula also gets rid of that decaying dead body odor…
1 lb box baking soda, 16 oz hydrogen peroxide, 3/4 cup gentle shampoo, 1/4 cup liquid dish soap like dawn or joy. Mix and use immediately. Something in it evaporates off so you can’t mix it and store it.
MJ sent me her formula which is white vinegar and peroxide for those who are sensitive to shampoos and/or Dawn dish soap.
Then there is a commercial product put out by the people who make Nature’s Miracle, Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor remover and it’s available at most retail pet stores.
By the way, Nature’s Miracle is great for getting rid of blood stains, and pet odors and stains.
The Siamese cat and the Sachet Kitty
Years ago, when Dear Hubby and I were dating, my Siamese tangled with a skunk. Dad told us to bathe her in tomato juice—the known ‘cure’ for the odor back then.
Now Snoopy never weighed more than seven pounds in her entire life. However, when DH and I went to bathe her, you would’ve thought she was ten times larger and weighed over a hundred pounds. She hated the whole idea of a bath and this cat was not declawed. The results looked like something out of the cartoons.
DH ran to the store and bought several large cans of tomato juice. We hauled out a large galvanized tub and filled it with said tomato juice. Then he caught Snoopy and walked over to the tub intent on putting her in it for her bath. Her toe touched the liquid and her claws raked his arm. She shot out of his grasp. It took another fifteen minutes to recapture her. This time DH had leather gloves on his hands. He tried to put her in the tub, her legs stretched out, four feet of claws hooked on the edges of the tub, and no matter how much he tried she wasn’t going in there. Picture that cartoon cat here. I’d get one paw unhooked and she’d snag the edge of the tub with it as soon as I went for another paw. We had more tomato juice on us than she did. In fact, she was dry as an old bone.
New plan, we had to find some way to keep her from hooking her paws on the edges of the tub. I went into the house, grabbed an old pillow case, and we bagged her with only her head sticking out of it. By this time, Snoopy was howling and you’d have thought we were killing her. Truth is a few of the neighbors came over to see what all the noise was. Now we had an audience.
Have you ever tried to wash a bagged cat? She knew what we were about to do. Not even dunked yet, her shrieks had our audience in the giggles. We dunked her and scrubbed the tomato juice in as best we could. Then while DH held her over the tub, I rinsed her with buckets of warm water. Snoopy was screaming like a banshee. Rinsed, disgusted, and transferred from the pillowcase to a towel she had had enough. She hissed at DH, leapt from the towel I had her wrapped in, and dashed into the house to hide under my bed.
Although the smell was not strong, it took a year for the odor to leave. Cats have hollow hair. Every time she got wet, she stank of skunk.
Snoopy relaxing on her favorite fake lambskin–she was about 17 here.
Doggonedmysteries 