group but rather, would demand to be let out and let in one at a time. It also simplified housebreaking of new fosters who were much quicker at figuring out the dog door than learning how to signal to be let out. By the time I’d spent a year with the doggy door in place I could not imagine how we lived without one, that is until today.A little over a week ago I began to notice the "dog room" had a more unpleasant odor than usual. The dog room is the large room at the back of my house which opens onto the deck and into the fenced yard. This is where my computer is located, next to a row of dog crates. Currently I am in the process of pulling up the carpet and putting down vinyl tiles to make a more dog friendly environment. This is where the dogs stay when I am working, so they have outside access but can be in the house if they want. Needless to say, with anywhere from six to twelve dogs at a time living with me over the past three years, not all with good house manners, the room is bound to have some odor, but this was worse than normal.
I checked around the room but found no offending deposits. I checked crates but no one had soiled their bed, I even got down and looked under the TV cart after noticing a couple dogs looking under there but I found nothing to explain the increased odor. Within a couple days I started taking the blankets out of all the crates to wash as the smell was getting worse. There seemed to be traces of the offensive scent on many items but none seemed to be strong enough to account for what was beginning to be just plain stinky. I searched the room again, several times, still thinking one of my little darlings had left me a nice deposit in some corner but I came up empty.
Yesterday, as I crawled around the floor laying tiles near the dog’s feeding station, I said to myself "It smells like something died in here". All the dogs had checked in for supper and the birds just moved outside earlier in the day so it wasn’t a family member. Once more I looked around the room, to no avail. Having worn myself out laying tiles I gave up for the day and went to bed. Waking up this morning, I realized the distinct stench had now found it’s way out of the dog room and into my adjoining bedroom. That was the last straw, the room was going to have to be cleared and the source of the smell dealt with. My greatest suspicion lay with the feeding station which is actually an old three drawer chest, just the right height to prepare dog meals and providing a storage place for supplies. I figured a mouse had made it’s way in, looking for something in the "treat" drawer and had died there. I would have to take out all the drawers, empty them and possibly turn over the chest.
Behind the chest were two crates, one empty, the other April’s. This pup sometimes has a problem with wetting in her crate and this morning the stink seemed more intense around her crate so I took it out first and, removed the blanket, which was dry and moved the crate to the bathtub to be scrubbed out. I then went back for the empty crate, prepared to work my way through the room. I didn’t have far to go. Picking up the empty crate which had been stored in a corner, my first thought was "how did the cat toy get back there?". Then I realized it was not the fuzzy ferret cat toy but a young opossum that had squeezed into the space between the crate and the wall to expire. The rodent like critter was only about six inches long with probably that much tail and if it weren’t for the smell I would have thought it was playing dead.
I doubt it crawled up onto the deck and in through the dog door itself so I have to suspect that one of the Rat "terrors" found it in the yard, inflicted a mortal wound and brought it into the house where it obviously lived just long enough to crawl off to hide from it’s tormentors. A cruel lesson was learned today. When you disturb a long dead possum that was squeezed down tight on the carpet when it died, what was a rather annoying, lingering bad smell immediately becomes a nose clogging, eye watering, stomach turning stench. It is now apparent that man’s greatest pet invention was the poop-scooper as this was the only feasible method of removing the remains from the room. Fortunately, it is nice weather now as the day was spent with the doors and windows open, many candles burning and fans running.
Even the dogs spent much of the day outside, lying in the sun and fresh air. Tonight everyone is sleeping with blankets over their crates as the door will be open all night. Simple Solution is good but it is no match for this situation. Fortunately, the carpet is coming out, sadly it will probably be several days before I can remove that portion as I have to finish tiling the center part of the room first so I can move all the crates off the carpeted part of the floor. I now fully understand the attitude of my country living, terrier owning friend, on the subject of dog doors.
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