The Smell

I know that dogs are thought to roll in bad smells as hark back to hunting days when it hid their smell. I just can not believe that any self respecting prey animal would be fooled by some of the disgusting things that dogs roll in.

When we came back to UK from Tenerife the dogs flew back a few days before us. At about 17;00 we took them for a last walk and run before their trip to the airport and a 6month jail term opps l mean quarantine. It was the days before pet passport.
They had great fun on the back area of the flats we lived in. For those who know Tenerife we lived in the flats next to the go kart track near the south airport with lots of unused land around.

Suddenly Wibble disappeared, panic was just starting to set in when she reappeared. OMG, l have never ever smelt anything as bad. She was covered with a sheen that looked like greasy fat and l swear it shimmered with smell. Even the other 2 dogs Poca and Santa backed off sneezing. Hub smacked a hand over his nose, backed off towards the flats and grabbed Poca and Santa muttering “Sort your bloody dog”. Funny how kids and animals are suddenly some one else’s when there is a problem.

We headed back to the flats and even Wib was starting to find her smell odious as she started to pull eagerly towards home. We had a choice once in the building. The lift was faster but fairly slow and there was 4 floors to go up and very confined, would l be able to hold my breath that long. The stairs were the other option, more air circulating but took much longer.
I chose the lift and hoped no one would stop the lift to get aboard, not that they would when the smell hit them but it meant the lift stopping and stuck with the smell for longer.

Once at the top l grabbed a new bottle of fairy liquid, I know you should not use washing up liquid on dogs but this was no ordinary situation. We headed for the roof. It was a top flat and our roof area was a big veranda area for us. I turned on tap and held her under the hosepipe and started to scrub her. In Tenerife as the pipe work runs above ground the water gets very hot. You have to be careful that when you turn on the cold water, especially with hoses, you do not burn the object you are watering. Hot was fine, l needed hot water and grease remover to clean Wib off.
Almost a bottle of fairy liquid later and a whole lake of water to rinse her and l off the pair of us finally smelt almost normal. By 20:00 she was dry fed and back to normal for the airport trip.

We found out afterwards that there was a fat dump where restaurant owners illegally dumped used fat just behind the go-kart track area. In the 40c Tenerife sun it was putrefied beyond belief. Wibble had found it and had a wonderful time. Thankfully she had just rolled in it if she had eaten the stuff god forbid what it would have done to her insides.