Not having anything substantive to rest my woes upon, I choose to fault the atmosphere. I've been huffing too many toxic fumes. This Monday, walking into our home after a long weekend away, the husband and I were greeted with the unmistakable stench of cat piss. Our boys apparently had had their fill of us being gone and expressed themselves accordingly. No matter that we have cat sitters come in each day to feed them, scoop poop and offer playful love. Our cats will not allow any cat sitter to pet them or offer up affection. They hide underneath beds and wait anxiously for us to return.
So for four days, they went without pets, scratches or fluffs. The only problem is that we don't know exactly where they did this piss business. The smell is potent, but any evidence had already dried. To try and track down where I should focus our destinkification efforts, I was down on all fours sniffing every inch of carpet, pillow, sofa and hardwood on our first floor. While thick in the air, neither of us could pinpoint the peepoint.
We laid down Arm & Hammer carpet fresh and vacuumed same twice. The windows on both house ends have been opened for cross breeze effect. And yet the odor remains. Ironically, a friend in NY emailed me today for advice about his new cat. This cat has been peeing all over the house whenever he's not around. We've not had this problem with our boys since they were kittens over eight years ago.
The worst I've ever experienced cat malcontent was right after I moved to the DC area in 2000. Both cats had endured a two day drive in the Jeep and being indoor cats, they weren't used to all the chaos. One of the first mornings in my new digs, I was welcomed to the day by a cat peeing on me while asleep in bed. My brand new quilt, sheets and me were all covered in angst inspired urination. I responded by wetting a towel and wringing it out on top of the ill-doer cat. He wasn't happy about my reaction, but no golden shower repeats occurred.
Unfortunately, we weren't around to see which was the offending cat. I'm betting if we'd been home, nothing would have happened. My advice to my NYer frieind was to do what we're doing: wash stuff, air out and hope for the best. That's probably good advice for a lot of life issues.
Meanwhile, how could you stay too mad at these guys? So much cat to love. Such big bladders to ap'pee'se.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Posts
3 comments:
I can stay mad at anything that pees on me. How well do you know your cat sitters? My guess would be catbox filled to the brim with business until the day of your return. As a result, cats peed where it was peeing territory. You'll find the pee spot in the future. They'll return there when they suffer an affront in the future.
Dearest Flip,
You bring up valid points. The cat sitter is not the brightest bulb in the box. However, we were only gone 3 days and when we returned, there was dukage to prove only that the box had been scooped recently. No more than 1/2 day's worth.
An affront indeed. Can I please license you to guest write for this blog? You have a way with the verbage. Miss you!
Thanks Wendy. You've got a good thing going here. I'm flattered you would share it, but I'm probably best relegated to the comments. Your's in cat urine -- Flip.
Post a Comment