My husband ran over a prairie dog while driving to the reservoir today, towing my boat on the trailer.
When I say “ran over,” I mean he really nailed it. Not a glancing blow, or just running over a tail. We had noticed smushed PDs all over the road, as if they were running out of a field that was being sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. And PDs are notoriously dumb around cars in the first place.
Bottom line: Judging by the substantial, full-on THUD when he hit it, we knew it was dead.
But it wasn’t till we parked the vehicle and I got out to unstrap the boat that the, er, full impact became clear. He must’ve flattened that PD and exploded it. Blood spray, bits of (ICK) PD flesh and what appeared to be grit (bone bits?) had splattered the trailer, the wheels, the straps, the foam blocks, and the boat. It STANK, too—not unsurprisingly of blood baking in the hot sun, but also of smelly flesh. No wonder those things aren’t hunted for meat. Not to mention bubonic plague.
Some of the grossness got superficially rinsed off with water from a bottle, plus of course my paddling, but the rest I had to hose off at home later, twice. The smell persisted longer than I expected.
The straps I washed off right at the paddle venue’s outdoor spigot and later I soaked them in dish detergent solution. They’re OK now.
The foam blocks, though, needed extra work. Washing them wasn’t enough. When they dried, I could still see the stains—not blood stains, but what must have been GREASE STAINS from the fatty little beast. To get rid of those, the same Gojo Orange gel I use for cleaning hands after oil changes did the trick.
This was the one time I would have preferred the boat been rooftopped instead of trailered. Lucky it wasn’t a skunk…
