People love their pets - and I am no exception. Here’s a recent article I wrote on what your pets can teach you about relationships. Enjoy! 

You haven’t experienced unconditional love until you’ve owned a pet. Their unwavering loyalty, non-judgemental attitude, and constant companionship can teach you more about yourself than any boyfriend, girlfriend, or romance film. As Nobel Prize Winner, Anatole France, once said: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened”.

Being an avid dog lover, I took on the responsibility of owning one while I was still in university. Fast forward three years later, you can find me spending every second I can with Kingsley, my Border Collie/ American Eskimo. In that time, he’s taught me valuable life lessons that I’ve been able to apply to relationships with friends, family, and my boyfriend.

Read the rest of the article on urbanebloc! 

*NOTE: Skip to the end if you just want to know what to do after your dog is sprayed by a skunk.

Kingsley: post traumatic stress after his skunk encounter.

Let me just tell you: skunk spray smells worse than you think. I always assumed it was similar to skunk cabbage (which is pungent enough), but it’s not. It feels like a gas bomb is released. My eyes were watering and my throat felt thick with the odor. My poor pup :(

I let him into the backyard this morning around 430AM so he could come with me when I drove my dad to the airport. When I went to let him in, he was pawing incessantly at the door, whimpering like a maniac. Just by the smell I knew he had been sprayed. But I reverted to a state of: “No way, not my dog. Maybe he tripped into a puddle…”

First, let me mention that I’ve called the city about the skunks living under our shed. The advice I got was fucking USELESS. I was told to either:

A) Tie a paper plate to a string near the entrance of their den to scare them away. (SERIOUSLY?!)
B) Fill a stocking with dog hair and shove it into the entrance, or place them around their home. Apparently they’ll see it as a threat to their environment and leave. (FALSE)
C) Don’t go into my backyard. (UHHHHH)

Thanks for nothing, Mississauga.

Anyway, so my dog got sprayed. His face was soaked and his mouth was foaming like he’d overdosed on drugs. He rubbed his face all over the kitchen floor and there were oil smears EVERYWHERE. It would’ve been adorable if his eyes weren’t squinting in pain and he wasn’t crying like a baby.

I’m rambling.

This was supposed to be a how-to about getting rid of skunk odor from your dog. OKAY. So, what you shouldn’t do is get angry at your dog. They are in pain. And for once, do not trust the fucking internet.

I looked up remedies for this and almost all the sites that came up said: tomato juice doesn’t work and you should avoid getting the cleaning solution in your dog’s eyes and mouth.

Apparently, tomato juice DOES work. Which I wish I knew so I wouldn’t have used a mix of hydrogen peroxide with dish soap and baking soda.

And somebody please tell me how I’m supposed to keep the mix off his face. Let’s pretend for a second we like using logic. If a dog is curious about something he’s not walking sideways to take a look. He’s not walking backwards. And he sure as hell isn’t wearing some kind of protective armor. (Unless yours is. Then that’s bad ass.) But no. Your pooch has his head lowered, trying to see and sniff things out. MEANING, if he’s going to get sprayed, you better believe it’ll be all over his face.


I think he forgot about the skunk. He’s probably more upset that he had to have a bath.

Anyway, this is what I did: 

1. Mix 4 cups hydrogen peroxide + 1/4 cup baking soda + a teaspoon of dish soap.
* This mixture of bad boys works like a charm and is probably the best remedy for the odor.
2. Using rubber gloves (for the sole purpose of keeping the smell off your hands) apply the solution with a cloth or a sponge.
3. Leave in for 5 minutes.
4. Rinse thoroughly.

Now this is where I went spastic and started pouring shit all over my dog so ignore this if you’d like:

5. Pour some mouthwash over your dog’s coat. The smell is strong and covers up any existing odors. Trust me.
6. After I did this, I thought: Oh, shit. What did I just do? My dog’s got Listerine all over his body he’s probably going to get poisoned! (Obviously, it was early and I was being irrational. It can’t be harmful if we use it in our mouths… right?)
7. If you can collect yourself, use your dog’s shampoo to wash out any chemicals that may be left. Or in my case, mouthwash.

Don’t worry. My dog is still alive. He smells wonderfully minty and I got a chance to comb and cut his hair after.

Okay, that’s it. I’m done. Spent.

If you haven’t been introduced to my 2-year-old puppy, this is Kingsley.

He is so spoiled. My parents treat him like their grandchild so he gets new toys/ treats on a weekly basis (in this case, 7 at once). He poked his nose at each one before picking the panda… anddddd then proceeded to try and play with all of them at once. The hard life of a dog, seriously.