Saturday, June 6, 2009

the urine of cats

I love animals.

This fact should be made clear by our current roster: 3 dogs, 2 cats, and fish.

Our past roster also included birds.

Prior to being married, I also kept rats, turtles, hamsters, and gerbils, ... along with various bugs and plant-life.  

Have I mentioned that I love animals?

When Jen and I moved into this house, we gleefully forked over approximately $5,500 to re-carpet every inch of our floors ... sans the kitchen and bathrooms, ... and garage.

We financed that carpet on a multi-year plan.  (Dave Ramsey would not be proud.)

I strategically chose a brown shade of carpet because we have animals, and I thought that this would make sense in terms of hiding the traces of our pack.

Geez-Louise, that was a mistake.

Cat urine can be discharged on brown carpet without anyone ever knowing, ... particularly if one has made the strategic decision to choose a carpet color that would camouflage the slaughter of work-mules.

That is, besides the smell ... of cat urine.

With that said, I can't begin to communicate the impact that piss-soaked floors can have on the atmosphere of one's abode.

Have you ever been to the zoo?  Visit the "Cat House" and you will understand where I'm coming from.

Aint good.

The good news is:  I pulled all of that stinking carpet up today, and as I sit here writing this post, ... I am enjoying the smell and view of plywood.




Two bits of advice, the second being contingent on the first:

1. Never, ... NEVER ... own 3 dogs and two cats.
2. (if you ignore #1) Never, .... NEVER spend close to 6K on brown carpet.  

We're putting down a product called "Traffic Master Allure." 

It's moisture proof. 

I love animals.


4 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh my. I love my hardwood-even though I sweep up an entire dogs worth of dog hair every other day.

Ronaribbit said...

He He. I was trying to figure out how you heard of my blog, but I figured it out!

I love animals too. I also love hard wood floors.

Stephanie

melanie said...

My husband can go from my loving husband to a ranting, raving lunatic on a damp day when the old smell of cat pee is brought out by the humidity. Seriously, cat pee is way worse than dog pee.

We didn't spend as much as you, but we did spend $2000 on carpet in our living room almost three years ago, just to have it stained and smelly and ready for tear-up now. And as much as he hates the smell, he won't let me tear it up. Won't. I'd rather have a subfloor painted than carpet with old cat pee.

Hate that you know what this is like, but glad to know we are not alone.

Michael Joseph Sharp said...

Melanie, there is something cathartic about ripping up piss-soaked carpet. Well worth the several K it took to lay it down.

If you do it, let us know. We're in.