Why Skunks?

This was our wonderful weekend:
Saturday- Pleasant day until 9:30 at night . . . Ben lets Champ out the front door to do his business as usual, 5 minutes later Ben gets up to call Champ back in and begins yelling "NO CHAMP, NO, GET IN THE HOUSE!" Champ comes running AFTER being sprayed by the SKUNK he was following! Within seconds our house reeks of skunk, and it's not the skunk smell you smell when there is a dead one on the side of the road, it's stronger and burns and you think you are going to die! We immediately take him to the bath and hose him down because of course it's in his eye! And naturally the pet store is closed so we can't go get deskunking shampoo. Luckily, Toby got skunked a couple months ago, so my parents knew a home made shampoo to use. So after and hour and a half of bathing the dog, then showering ourselves and cleaning up, we lay down to go to bed. The smell is still so strong I have to leave and I go to my parents house to sleep (of course Ben can stand the smell and passed out! Men!) I get to my parents and still smell SKUNK. So I take another shower, change my clothes and finally get a little sleep, however I still get a hint of skunk smell now and then. I realize I didn't wear gloves while bathing the dog and my hands smell like skunk!

Sunday- So now it is time for church. I am just excited to get out of the SKUNKED house. We sit down in Sacrament, and smell skunk! We sniff each other (the people behind us thinking who knows what!!) Of course my hair has soaked up the smell! So I leave after sacrament to get the deskunking shampoo/cleaner for the dog, but poor Ben has to stay and teach primary!
We finally get home from church and spend the day washing and cleaning everything!!! We had to take down all of the curtains and wash them, wash all the clothes and blankets left out, wash our bedding and the dogs bedding! All of the windows are open and fans are blowing. . . And our house still smells like skunk with cleaner and candle smell trying to cover it!

So after this wonderful weekend of ours, I have some questions. First of all why does it not smell like skunk outside where the skunk sprayed and only smells in the house??? Second question, what are skunks good for? I mean seriously why do we have skunks????

In case anyone gets to share this wonderful experience with us:
Home shampoo for skunked dogs: 1 quart Hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 cup baking soda and some dish soap.
Store bought product: Natures Miracle deskunking shampoo
To take away some of the smell in the house and mask it for a couple hours: Spread ground cinnamon on a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for and hour.

Oh and a nice little side note here, the lady at the pet store said that if they get sprayed in the nose that, everytime the dogs nose gets wet you will smell the skunk smell. OF COURSE Champ got sprayed right in the face. . . in the nose! So we will be getting little reminders about this experience for months to come! Yay!