My Little Stinker

By the title of this post, I think you can guess what the Noodle is going to be for Halloween, right?

Yeah, ummmmm.....we've had skunk issues here on Elizabeth Hill. It all started last year. The summer of '06:
We got some brand new neighbors, Pam and Jeff, their daughter Mel and dogs Nikita and Gracie Mae.
We've become fast friends. Mainly because of Jeff and Zuddy's mutual admiration for beer.
And grilling.
So we're always over at their patio/driveway area hangin' out most summer evenings.

I, being the morning person that I am, go inside when it's time to tuck the Noodle into bed and then I go to bed, too.
That's when all the interesting things happen. And I always miss them.

Picture this scene, if you will:

One warm summer night Pam, Jeff, Mel and Zuddy are sitting at patio table, having a brewski. Crickets are chirping, the stars are shining. They are probably discussing the latest Flava-flav show. Er, I mean, figuring out how to help their fellow man. Yeah! That's it!

Suddenly, Gracie Mae and Nikita are very interested in something under a nearby pine tree! Gracie quickly trots over to the tree to examine the situation and then sharply turns the other way and leaves (she's the brains of the bunch). Nikita starts barking like crazy, charges at the tree, and finds a skunk! She chomps down on the skunk and shakes the life out of it - all the while, the skunk is spraying!
As this is happening, the humans are scattering: Zuddy (being the gentleman he is) shoves Pam and Melanie out of his way so he can climb up the retaining wall and escape into our yard. He remembers using Melanie's hunched over body as a step-stool to climb the wall. Then, coming to his senses, he rembers that he is, in fact, a gentleman, and he goes back and lends a hand to Pam and Mel so they can climb the wall and escape into our yard.
Jeff jumps into action with his stellar hockey skills of days gone by and beats the skunk senseless with the stick.
Meanwhile, they all smell.
BAD.
Really bad.
Really, really bad.

Okay, so this was last year. THIS year, Nikita's been sprayed once, Gracie Mae has been sprayed once and so has Zuddy. It was about a month ago. He voluntarily slept in the garage that night.

Noodle decided she needed to be a skunk for Halloween. I mean, what other choice did she have, really?

My Mom and I made the costume from Family Fun Magazine:
The directions were really good and it was pretty easy.

For my Mom, that is.

Because I volunteered to clean her house while she sewed.

I'll take pictures of our little "Skunky McSkunkerton" on Wednesday, but go check out the costumes on the Family Fun website if you haven't already. Especially the contest entries they had. They're awesome!!