Friday, February 18, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Skunk Report (+I Spy Art, Measurement + Lit)

I'll get right to the point. It's been an exciting week filled with learning, love, laughter and...an odor...a little less than lovely.

When we woke up this morning, our house smelled like SKUNK. Now, living in the country, that does occasionally happen. But when I opened the door to the outside porch, the odor was unusually strong. One look at the CAT told me why. 

See the lovely streak of yellow running up her leg? Apparently, skunks spray a yellow oil. That, my dear readers, is the source of the horrendous odor. Let me put it this way...when my 16yo daughter stuck her nose out the back door she said, "It smells so bad that you can't even tell it's a skunk smell anymore."

With outside temperatures currently at freezing, it's not a very opportune time to give an OUTSIDE cat a bath. (For that matter, when is it EVER time to give an outside cat a bath??)

My 8yo son just said, "Don't put that [picture] on there! It's MEAN!" But even meaner? The cat's now adult children, her usual cold-weather snuggling companions, seem to be shunning her. And who'd blame them.

Smelly cats...isn't there an educational opportunity in here somewhere???

When we weren't contemplating skunks this week, we:

*did some I SPY artwork with shapes

*considered how big Mommy's feet are and did some estimating and measuring with her "feet"

*read about giants and estimated and measured with giant feet

*measured with tile and headstrings

*considered whether a candy bar coupon was a good deal

If you'd like to share about your week, or give me smelly outdoor cat advice, please comment! :)



8 comments:

  1. Poor cat! I heard that tomato juice is excellent in taking a skunk smell out.

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  2. The educational opportunity is this - to get the smell out, you have to dissolve what's stuck on the cat so it can be washed away. This ties in with why we use detergent when washing things - dirt is often oily, and water alone won't do a good job of dissolving it and leaving behind a clean item. Detergent helps by binding to the oily (hydrophobic) parts and leaving hydrophilic tails on the outside of a dirt/detergent particle so that particle can be carried away by the water.

    What dissolves skunk oil? It depends on the exact chemical nature of skunk oil. I'm not sure what will do it - Mythbusters did an episode about it (http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2004/09/mythbusters_solar_death_ray_sk.html). According to them, the most effective was a solution of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid dish soap. (It worked better than the stuff you buy at the pet store.)

    Good luck - thankfully, this is a problem I've not faced.

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  3. Poor kitty!! Sounds like you have had a full and busy week.

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  4. Don't know if you ever watched the TV show "Friends" but I now have Phoebe's "Smelly Cat" song in my head. ;)

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  5. Great ideas, all!

    And Jamie...LOL...I totally remember that song. And, YES, it fits!!!!

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  6. Aw, poor kitty, hope you guys get it figured out soon. Lots of fun lessons this week. :)

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  7. I hope you all survived the "cat bath"! We've only had to resort to an inside bath a couple of times.
    Janet W
    http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/

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  8. Poor smelly cat...


    I like what Stephany said.


    I've given baths to indoor cats and that's no picnic. Can't imagine with an outdoor cat! I would take the cat to a professional.

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