sacre maroon

What do we not have in Bermuda, but plenty of in Canada? No it's not snow, although it does 'lurk' in the backyard, the front yard or anything with a yard. It's something I've never had to worry about growing up in Bombay or Dubai. Something that we had only heard of, like a 'suburban' myth! Run as fast as you can away from it, we were told. You don't want to be anywhere near it when it unleashes its defence mechanism, and that was enough to make us fearful, if we ever found ourselves in its path. We knew what it looked like. Plus there were cartoon characters based on this animal. But cartoons stand for nothing in the real world and Pepé Le Pew is no exception. Yes, we're talking about the dreaded skunks, and while skunks may look cute (sort of), they are anything but. Beware of the spray, run away. Skunks are a common prowler in our Toronto suburban backyard. I've seen them many a time in our front yard too and have had to wait until it's made its exit. Sometimes for upto a minute. Shooing it does not work and I've never stuck around long enough to find out what would. One of Toronto friends once told me that he got away from a skunk Mission Impossible style, barely missing the spray, and then running for his life. I couldn't help but laugh while he reenacted his moves. There's no way to scare a skunk. So, what if you do get sprayed by one, accidentally? How do you rid yourself of that dreaded smell? Apparently, tomato juice, and I don't know who discovered that and how, but tomato juice is the only remedy. You don't drink it but rather bathe in it. Many times. Fill up that tub & get ready for rounds two, three and possibly four. Eck!

Yesterday another Toronto friend of mine said her cat got sprayed by a skunk. Poor Norman! (Yes, the cat's named Norman). HEY! A skunk and a cat? Sound familiar? This is exactly like Pepé Le Pew and his attempted daliances with a cat mistaken for a skunk, except the roles are reversed (maybe! we don't know if the skunk was female). One of the comments she did received was that maybe Norman tried to 'hit' on the skunk. I did ask her if she tried tomato juice on Norman & if it actually worked on animals, like it supposedly does on humans. She replied saying she used pasta sauce instead...and no it didn't work! Course not. Poor poor Norman! If the skunk makes an appearance again, they may just have to name it Pepé.