Thirty minutes earlier, we were out hiking when I stopped to snap a photo.

That’s when I heard Bandit barking for his siblings, “Let’s chase the cat!” I know that bark well, but there shouldn’t be any cat where we are, and then I heard Bandit’s bark beneath me…. underground!

They chased the cat alright….. straight into his den.

Only it wasn’t the cat! It was Pepe’Le Peu! I could smell the discharge just seconds after Bandit started yelping. This bark was nothing like I’ve heard before, more like, “Get me outta here!” Bandit was well inside the Le Peu’s den.

Then, Roscoe, all 90 pounds of him, was trying to get into the hole, all while Bandit struggled to back out. And then there was Peanut. Eleven pounds of ferociousness and determination digging her way past Roscoe’s shoulders. She didn’t want to miss anything.

I am sure Pepe’ was trying to save his butt, so “Fire away” he did!

By the time I had hiked, slipped, and fallen into the ravine below where the three were, they had all been successfully shot with Eau de Skunk. The air was so strong with skunk musk that I thought I would vomit. The dogs were shaking their heads and rolling on the ground. Peanut rubbed her nose into the weeds and wrestled with the grasses to rub off the yellow skunk oil. Bandit was making all sorts of mouth gestures, his tongue performing acrobatics in his mouth. It was clear where Bandit got marked…. right in the mouth!

Roscoe felt slightly left out since he never got his large body in the den; he only got the over-spray. It was good enough because now he was rolling, too!

Gads! I thought today would be a light duty day, but now I have to scrub down three ornery rascals.

Now, where is the tomato juice?………