JACKSONVILLE — One of my worst nightmares came true last week.

My dog got sprayed by a skunk.

For those of you who check in with me every week, you’ll likely remember me writing about the hole in my back yard.

A skunk took up residence in the sink hole, and while it is fortunately only in the hole at night (I think), Molly, my dog, unfortunately felt it her dogly duty to sit by the hole night after night — whether she was guarding it to keep the skunk from coming back or just wanted to meet and make friends with the pole cat, I’m not sure. (She has a special affinity for kitties of all kinds, for some reason.)

One night she barked at the striped visitor, and I was able to get outside in time to see it running away from her. I figured if it ran that night, it would always run from her.

Not so, my friend.

I guess I knew in my heart of hearts that one night, he (or she) would get tired of running and defend his turf.

There was one night he sprayed, by the way, but he didn’t hit Molly. I got her into the house and shut the door, blocking out the smell.

Apparently skunks will give you one “warning shot” before hitting you.

Last Friday night was the fateful night, though.

I was kicked back in my recliner, enjoying TV and a little quiet time when I heard a single bark from Molly. She’s half dachsund, half chihuahua, so barks a lot — at everything and everyone — and usually I just ignore it.

But about 30 seconds later came the smell.

I haven’t sprung from my chair that fast ever.

Molly was sitting in the grass, just off the edge of the porch, and when I called her, she came in the house willingly.

When I closed the door, the smell didn’t disappear, though, like it had before. It lingered.

Molly took off on one of her expeditions through the house, so I sat back down to resume watching my show, certain the slight skunky odor in the air would dissipate eventually.

But it didn’t.

In fact, it got stronger and stronger.

Eventually my eyes and throat were burning, and the odor morphed into a putrid mixture of burning rubber and rotten eggs.

The experience was a lot like what I imagine it feels like to get sprayed by pepper spray, only really smelly, too.

My stomach sunk — partly from the awful smell, but partly from the realization Molly got hit.

She was unfazed. In fact, she laid down in her bed and took a little nap while I quickly grabbed my laptop to research how to get skunk smell off a dog.

Of course there was the ol’ tomato juice suggestion, but I didn’t have any.

Apparently a mixture of 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of dishwashing soap will do the trick, if you wash the dog with it while it’s still foaming from the peroxide-soda reaction.

I didn’t have any baking soda, though, so I tried just straight dishwashing soap.

It managed to get enough of the smell off of her for us to make it through the night without me dying. (Molly sleeps with me, you see, and while normally I love it, I wasn’t looking forward to bed time that night.)

I also learned on the Internet that burning candles in your home will get the skunk smell out. One person posted on a message board that in just two-and-a-half hours of candle burning, the smell was completely gone!

After getting Molly dried off, I lit as many candles as I could find.

It did help, but it in no way took all the odor out.

In fact, I still get whiffs of skunkness when I get home in the evenings.

The next day was a rare day off for me, so my mom and I went to Tyler to run some errands.

One was to stop at the pet store and search for some sort of dog shampoo that would make Molly smell better.

I was directed to a skunk odor remover by the salesperson that not only gets the skunk stink off dogs, it claims to also remove it from people, furniture — just about anything that could get smelly, I guess.

Molly didn’t like it at all, but it sure made her smell a lot better. She still occasionally smells of Eau de Pepe LePew, but not much at all.

The stuff even managed to get the stinkiness out of her dog bed, too.

So, my advice to you dog owners out there: Either keep lots of peroxide, baking soda and dish soap around, or make a run to Tyler and stop in the big pet mart for some of the odor remover.

Trust me — learn from my experience.

And save yourself from the smelliest night of your life.