“Ariel, your dog does not smell good,” said Juan.
“Well, he is a dog,” Ariel replied. “He never smells good.”
“I know, but today he smells worse than usual. I can smell him from across the room.”
Ariel walked over to her dog, Filbert. Juan was right. Filbert did smell very bad. “What did you get yourself into, boy?” Ariel asked her dog.
“I think he got sprayed by a skunk,” Juan said.
“What makes you say that?”
“The same thing happened to my cousin’s dog last summer. He smelled just as bad as Filbert does.”
“Why would a skunk want to spray poor Filbert?” Ariel asked.
“Skunks spray when they feel afraid,” Juan explained. “Filbert might have been barking or growling at the skunk. The skunk probably thought he was in danger. Some animals defend themselves with their teeth or their claws. A skunk uses its stinky spray to keep itself safe.”
“It defends itself with a bad smell?”
“Yes. In fact, the smell is so bad that most animals will not even go near a skunk. Even much bigger and more dangerous animals, like foxes, wolves, and bears, will run away from a skunk so that they don’t get sprayed.”
“So skunks have no enemies?” Ariel asked.
“That is almost true, but not quite. The great horned owl has a very weak sense of smell. It does not care if it gets sprayed.”
“So the great horned owl is the skunk’s only real enemy?”
“That’s right. In fact, there is only one other animal that usually gets close enough to a skunk to get sprayed a lot,” Juan replied.
“Is it another animal with a weak sense of smell?”
“No,” said Juan. “Actually, this other animal has one of the best senses of smell in the entire animal kingdom. It’s the dog!”
“Oh, Filbert,” Ariel said. “What were you thinking?”
“That’s the problem,” Juan said. “Dogs do not really think it through. They just see the skunk and go after it. All the dog really cares about is catching the skunk. Every other animal will leave a skunk alone as soon as it sees the skunk’s black and white fur.”
“It sounds like the colors of a skunk’s fur are also a way it defends itself.”
“You’re right, Ariel. It is actually better for skunks if an animal runs away before it can get sprayed. A skunk only has enough of the stinky stuff for five or six sprays. After that it can take them ten whole days before they can make more. So for those ten days, they have no way of defending themselves.”
“Gee, Filbert, why couldn’t you have met a skunk that was all out of spray?” Ariel asked.
Filbert barked and wagged his tail.
“Juan, how did your cousin get his dog to stop smelling so bad?”
“Well, first he tried just giving his dog a bath, but that did not work. Then his friend told him to try giving his dog a bath in tomato juice. That seemed to work at first, but the smell came back a few hours later. Finally, he called the veterinarian. The veterinarian told him that a skunk’s spray is very oily, so just using soap and water will not work. She also said that tomato juice only hides the smell for a little while. She said that he should wash the dog with a mixture of warm water, baking soda, hand soap, and hydrogen peroxide. That finally worked.”
“I guess I should give that a try. What do you think, Filbert?” Ariel asked. She looked down at where Filbert had been sitting, but he was not there anymore. “Hey, Filbert! Where did you go, boy?”
Ariel walked into the living room to look for her dog.
“Hey, Juan!” she shouted from the other room. “Can you call your cousin and ask him a question for me?”
“Sure. What?”
“How do you get the skunk smell out of a couch?”
According to the passage, why might a skunk not want to spray an enemy?
A
Even skunks do not like the smell of their own spray.
B
Enemies attack skunks once they get sprayed.
C
Skunks have to get very close to the enemies when they spray.
D
Skunks can run out of their spray very fast.
What is the right answer
