May Thirteenth; Futile Bath

Many years ago, when my son was in his early teens, we had a dog named Odie who was part of our family. Adopted from a rescue, he was an amazing collection of intelligence, energy, loving and goofiness. He wanted to be friends with everyone and everything. If he could find a new playmate, all the better. Actually, that’s not really true.

We installed a fence around our front yard over thirty years ago. Every dog we have had as part of our family has been confined safely behind that fence. Well, no, that’s not true.

It seems that nearly every dog we’ve had, wants to be on the greener side of the fence.  They want to run, to play, to investigate. But, there is a leash law and we try to follow the law.
When we had the collies, they would escape to run down to the creek and cool off. Then they would return to sit outside the gate to be allowed back inside. We had a dog named Buddy that no matter what we did, he would find a way out of the fence so he couldn’t be allowed to roam free even inside the fence. He escaped once and cost us a fine from the county when someone called and reported him out.

Back to Odie.

 One afternoon, Odie managed to get outside the fence without anyone realizing. Everyone distracted and busy in our own ways, we never noticed him missing. He wasn’t a noisy dog, so we were accustomed to quiet. We may not have known he was gone, but we sure knew when he got back. Odie, had tried to introduce himself to a skunk. Not a problem, well, that’s not true. 

We had a small child’s swimming pool that we used to bath the dogs in. My husband filled the pool and went in search of dog shampoos. Our son and grandson were out there to help. I stayed inside slightly out of scent range and watched. I also laughed, a lot.

The three of them began the soaping, scrubbing, rinse and repeat until they ran out of dog shampoo. Odie still reeked. So my husband in his infinite wisdom, doused this poor dog with men’s cologne. We won’t go into how badly this poor dog smelled after that. Still reeking of skunk, now to have cologne added to it made for a horrible combination.

Odie was not coming inside for a while. Also now my husband, son and grandson all needed baths.

 In case you ever run into the problem here is a link I found that might help if you are in need of answers;https://www.petmd.com/dog/grooming/evr_dg_how-to-get-skunk-smell-off-dog. I would pay strict attention to the warning on the one. I really wouldn’t want to cause an explosion simply because a dog tried to befriend a skunk.

The thing is, how often do we think that we can scrub away the dirt of our own life? If we use this method or this soap, or this water temperature, we can clean ourselves. If we memorize verses, pay extra to the church, follow rules perfectly, we’ll be clean. If we don’t lie, cheat or steal, we’re good. In the end though, all of our efforts are in vain. Like the many baths Odie was given that didn’t take away that smell, we can’t do it on our own. It doesn’t, want help to cover ourselves in good deeds, our sins, our wrongs still reek. As a Christian, I believe that only through being washed in the blood of the Lamb, will my sins be cleansed. Only then, will my garments be white as snow. Only through His forgiving love, can my life and soul be bathed in His never ending love.

Eventually the skunk smell faded from Odie. But it took a while to fully be gone. When I turned my life over to Christ, asking forgiveness, those sins were cleansed immediately. Such is love.

I don’t have a photo of Odie handy, so here is one of Honeysuckle which smells much better anyway.