I love having my friends visit me and thanks to their visits and to the numerous ladies that come for English I have to keep my house looking fairly neat. This isn't that hard to do since there are no children at home anymore and Tetsu cleans up after himself pretty well. (If truth be told, he is a better housekeeper than I am!) The cats however do more than their share of getting things dirty and sometimes I wonder why we have them at all! (Not really.)Today two of my friends came to visit and since we were doing patchwork in my sewing room, I had to get the upstairs presentable. Thanks to Flylady's philosphy of keeping things no more than 15 minutes away from being neat, I can quickly vaccumn downstairs and not have too many worries about what people see. But upstairs! Hmmm. Whose clothes are all over the bannister? All mine! Why are there piles of laundry on the floor? Because I folded them but didn't put them away! And the sewing room itself? That was more than 15 minutes clean up time!
What really boils me were those cats! They shed! I know that they can't help that but my vaccumn cleaner sure takes a beating and what the vacuumn can't get, I go back and forth with this sticky roller thing that is supposed to pick up threads and lint (by the way, run one of these over your cutting board and all the junk that gets caught in the cutting grooves comes out nicely!) Some cat has knocked over a pile of quilting crumbs and another has taken off with my pin cushion again...
The biggest cat problem though is embarrassing to admit. At least one of the dumb cats has a peeing problem and doesn't seem to mind making a puddle here and there. The frustrating thing is I don't know which cat!!! I've never caught the culprit but I can see and smell where he or she has been! I start cleaning the sewing room. But what's this smell? (as if I need to ask.) Not again! And where? I'm crawling around the room and checking the floor and window sills like a blood hound. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Ah ha! Proof. Not that it does me any good. The vacuumn gets thrown in the corner and out come the rags and buckets and animal repellent spray (a little late). I scrub and fuss and bellow at any cat that comes to watch me in action. Unfortunately even soapy water and rag cleaning does not take away all the smell. My friends are going to be here in 15 minutes! So I liberally spray with air freshener (quarter of a can?) and open all the windows and ban the cats from ever entering my sewing room again. (They don't listen and meander back in while I'm looking for incense to burn.)
Even while my friends were here I was spritzing the air whenever they left the room and the windows were open wide enough so that quilt blocks were being blown about.My friends were very polite to not mention the unmentionable but anyway I'm am upset with my cats.
For all that, the cats are so cute watching us cut and sew and then sleeping peacefully on a quilt that we've left unattended for a few moments. I can't stay angry at them for long. (But watch me tomorrow morning when I sniff out another "accident".)
Cat lovers. Advice, please, advice!
8 comments:
LOL I'm lauging at your cat story even if it is not fun having a trouble with one of your cats. But I can imagine you crawling around sniffing. I've done that too :) I am a catlover and have had cat's always. Now I only got one. I also had one cat that even if he was castrated sprayed all the time. But when he came up in my arms and gave me a "hug" he was so cute and I forgave him. I also had one cat that peed everywhere. I caught him in action so I knew who it was. But I am sad to say that when they first have started to pee inside, they never stop. Do you have a litterbox inside the house?
ciao,
don't care too much about cleaning up,
and enjoy the day with your friends.
ciao ciao
I feel your pain. If the cat always goes in the same spot, apparently moving a food dish there may stop the behavior (since they won't go where they eat). And citrus peel is supposed to work as well, but I haven't tried it since I don't actually mind the cats sleeping on the sofa...
I have three indoor cats, and like you have one that's just begun to dribble in odd places at times. ARG. My pet store sells a product that the cats don't like, and if I spray that after cleaning they'll stay out of the room she seems to have chosen as a little box... I've also found if I change the little box more frequently so its really clean al the time, she'll use it more than the carpet! Good luck
No tips for your cat problem, but suppose the vet would suggest something. Once my little dog started to have 'accidents' & it turned out she had an infection, & she was good once she had antibiotics.
I loved the quilts - your cats have very good taste!
Whenever I visit you, I really feel comfortable and enjoy being at your home. I have never noticed the smell. The cats are always so cute! I didn't know your struggle with the problem.
Thank you so much Taniwa for welcoming us so warmly every time we visit you.
The pictures are also so cut!!!
Tanya, I have had cats all my life. I grew up on a farm. Any urine spot, flood with cold water. We used to wick up the water and urine with diaper liners; now lots of rags will do.
Do this two or three times then pour plain white vinegar on the area quite liberally. Let it set for ten minutes. Then use lots of rags and step on them to soak up the vinegar.
The urine as it deteriorates turns to ammonia; using vinegar will neutralize both the ammoniac smell and the urine itself.
Like Tonya said, move their food dish there. She's right. thelma
You can "fix" the problem... My cat has a "syndrome" where she get a pain - so she will go where she is not supposed to on occasion - a bit of the Rx & she is fine. She also is prone to urinary crystals, so she is on a sprcial Rx diet... When we were trying to figure out & fix the problem, we got "cat attract" kitty litter & it really helped. Recommended litter box ratio is number of cats +1 & cleaning often...
Never use Amonia based cleaners...
There are "special" cleaners that neutralize the odors... (not sure the brand or name right now...)
Cat urine glows under black light, so when you are readl for a deep clean, try to get one... My local pet shop will rent it out on a daily basis...
Hope some of that helps...
BTW If one starts, the other might follow, because they are going based on the scent, so if they smell the urine in the carpet, all of a sudden that becomes a litter box - My poor boy went through tests, because I thought he was the culprit...
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