2018 Friday — Flip Flops

A tarball surprise! (From Wikipedia: A tarball is a blob of petroleum which has been weathered after floating in the ocean. Tarballs are an aquatic pollutant in most environments, although they can occur naturally and as such are not always associated with oil spills.) These tarballs are a natural occurrence here. Years ago the Chumash people used the tar that seeped from the ocean floor to coat their canoes.

Today we went to Moonstone Beach in Cambria, (just 12 miles north of us on the California coastline) to walk the three pups before going to the Farmers Market in the Cambria Vet’s Hall parking lot.

So we walked the beach and then arrived back at the car to discover that Max dog had sat his cute little butt in tar. He is our lazy dog; he’s over-weight and if we pause during a walk, he instantly sits. So, we didn’t see it happen, but he obviously sat right on a glob of tar and we did not notice the dark goopy smelly mess on his black fur until we got back to the car. We didn’t put him in the car, but found a little pair of pocket scissors and used those to cut the fur patch of tar off him. He is so complacent and sat still while I scissored.

Then we looked at our flip flops—oh no! Not only were the soles slathered in gunk, but the tar had oozed up the sides. My good Rainbow flip flops looked destroyed. I changed into the extra pair I keep in the car.

Both girl pups had also stepped in the black stuff! We’ve been told “peanut butter” is the solution. Rubbing peanut butter on their fur helps remove the tar.

Peanut butter is one solution. So back at the house, we walked the dogs up the south stairs to the back yard to begin the cleaning. The pups kept trying to eat the PB we were rubbing on them. They thought it was a new dining experience. The PB along with some Dawn liquid detergent helped us with this mess.

It was one big laughing mess of fun! We did finally get the tar off the dogs and Mr. Fun also got all the tar off my Rainbows.

Good grief!!!

from Cayucos on
California’s Central Coast,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka