Last night at 4:00 am I wake up because I smell something weird. I mean, I wake up from a dead sleep because it's so strong. I wake up my wife and ask her, "You smell something?".

Finally, I think, that smells kinda like a vacuum cleaner belt when it's getting smoked. She agrees. SHOOT, something must be burning!

I wake everybody up and we start looking for smoke and whatever it is that smells. I run down into the basement and check the furnace and shut off the breakers that power it and head back upstairs. By now my eyes and throat are starting to burn a bit like I've gotten sprayed with pepper spray and I'm really wondering what's going on. I can't find smoke anywhere.

Finally, my wife and daughter come in from outside and tell me there was a skunk under the deck that sprayed one of our cats.

That skunk didn't hold back any juice, I can tell you that for sure. I've smelled a lot of skunks, but this one topped them all for pure malodorous power and surefire repellent potency.

The house still smells a little even tonight and my throat still burns a little too. I'm sure glad I've never been sprayed while bushwhacking around <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />