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4973. Jenerator - 9/3/2013 6:48:47 PM It was just weird to be in what I thought to be the shoe capital of the world and not be able to buy any.
Ferragamo? No size 42. Prada? No size 42. Dollar store? No size 42.
Coming home with a functional piece of leather isn't as fun as splurging on some form of couture. I can't say to my friends, "Check out these fine Italian leather shoes!"
Instead, I serve as the warning.
Despite my aching feet, I had a blast. So many highlights and so many once in a lifetime opportunities.
The biggest splurge was dining here
http://www.osteriafrancescana.it/ 4974. thoughtful - 9/5/2013 2:04:36 AM I went outside tonight to chase the deer away from the apple trees, looked up and saw this:
But it's nothing compared to the terrific photos my cousin is taking over in Wales...I absolutely must go there. 4975. arkymalarky - 9/5/2013 10:19:28 PM Gorgeous! 4976. thoughtful - 9/6/2013 5:01:26 PM Anyone else see an alien in the cloud? Shoulders coming out of the tree line, very thin neck, face to the left with a very enlarged skull and high cheek bone??
Or do I need counseling?
Of course, those are not mutually exclusive.
;) 4977. judithathome - 9/6/2013 11:21:30 PM Looks more like a bird with a very fancy coxcomb on top of its head.... 4978. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:05:01 PM So... our semi-geriatric cat has never had an "accident". When we moved to this house with upstairs carpet I insisted that she not spend time up there. My wife objected because she felt the cat was lonely downstairs all the time. However, the presence of 2 baby gates to keep our kids off the stairs. Needless to say over the year she'd gotten less and less diligent about closing the gates and since she goes to bed after me the cat started to enjoy the upstairs domain.
Well the cat got stuck upstairs behind 2 baby gates for some amount of time and finally had to do her business in the nursery.
For those who don't know cat odors... it's building thing. You don't really smell it until it dries some. So it'd been there a while before I noticed and it started to get bad.
Anyhow... if you read on the internet, the smell is very difficult to get out. I figured since this was probably one or two accidents total, and not a chronic problem I might have a chance before I did what most nay-sayers say... and that is that you have to rip up the carpet and redo the floors.
Rental house... no thanks. 4979. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:33:22 PM So... it's been 2 1/2 weeks without the smell and I am going to report that I am cautiously optimistic that I removed the smell (or more precisely, replaced).
Step 1: Black light flashlight. In a dark room, use this to locate the places on the carpet that your precious did her thing. It is quite obvious.
Step 2: Use some masking tape to create reference points to bracket the stains.
Step 3: For a couple of weeks use Natures Own or similar enzymatic cleaner to saturate the stain. I used the Natures Own Orange Oxy, and FON feline odor neuturalizer. This is a tough step because the smell is going to get a lot worse before it gets better during this stage of the process.
Step 4: Rent a "Rug Doctor" and their cleaning fluid. Buy a gallon of white vinegar and some dawn dishwashing liquid.
Step 5: Make a room temperature mixture of a quart of vinegar with a quart of water and a couple of teaspoons of dishwashing liquid.
Step 6: Saturate the areas of concern with this solution using a sports bottle or similar to inject it deep into the carpet. Let this sit for 30 minutes or so.
Step 7: Mix quart of vinegar and quart of hot water with 1 tsp of dishwashing liquid. Use this solution in the Rug Doctor and run it over the areas of concern and vicinity.
Repeat 2 more times. Then wait again.
Step 8: Run the Rug Doctor as directed with their cleaning fluid. Might as well do the whole carpet. Run the Rug Doctor over areas of concern until the are no longer saturated, but instead slightly damp like the rest of the carpet.
It's been 2 weeks. The awful cat urine smell has been replaced with a faint vinegar smell that is hard to put your finger on... it is a clean smell... and certainly a vast improvement.
It took 2 1/2 weeks to do this whole process, but after 2 1/2 weeks since I did it, I am cautiously optimistic that we won't be paying our landlord for new carpet. 4980. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:35:22 PM Don't tell Rug Doctor agent your plans or that you did this... they say only their fluid is approved and don't use other household cleaners.
However, vinegar is benign, so I'm not worried, and since I finished with their fluid all of the suds and whatnot were thoroughly gone by the time I was done. 4981. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:36:50 PM This method is an amalgam of the plethora of inconclusive stories on the internet for removing cat urine odor from carpet. 4982. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:37:33 PM Can't say it will work on long-term problem. 4983. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 4:38:14 PM I'd go for the millennial, but I would rather people read my cat cleanup adventure. 4984. judithathome - 9/7/2013 7:06:50 PM Excellent advice! How long before the baby gates are no longer needed? ;-) 4985. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 7:21:42 PM I was not sure it would work.
The general consensus in most places is that you can't get the smell out. Those who say that had were very vague about what they did.
Might get away without a step or product, but above is _exactly_ what I did. 4986. arkymalarky - 9/7/2013 7:35:29 PM if I had it to do over again I would not put a spec of carpet in my house. Mose is very lucky that she and sil have a rent house that has 0 carpet, since they have 3 dogs. Their house is all tile and it looks great. 4987. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 7:40:12 PM Rugs are better than carpet for sure.
If I had any control over it we wouldn't have a cat, and it wouldn't have ever been upstairs. 4988. judithathome - 9/7/2013 8:01:21 PM We have two cats and no carpet...just oriental rugs in 4 rooms.
Well, I take that back...we have indoor/outdoor carpet in the garden room but Keoni wants to have it ripped out. I'm leaning toward that myself. Get some nice faux slate vinyl and then get a small oriental rug for the main section.
Back to the cats...thus far, not pee problems, just the occasional regurgitation when one eats too quickly. 4989. judithathome - 9/7/2013 8:05:18 PM And with 2 cats, and me being as OC with them as I am, the litter boxes are scooped out each time they use them...I collect the clumps in a heavy duty ziplock bag each time and we have ZERO cat smell in our house.
People come to visit and suddenly, a cat will stroll by and they are amazed we even HAVE cats...one person even blurted out "I can't believe you have cats...I didn't smell them!" and I just said "You won't."
4990. iiibbb - 9/7/2013 8:07:04 PM We had a robot scooper that did a great job... but when it broke the second time I didn't feel like getting it fixed again. 4991. judithathome - 9/7/2013 8:09:14 PM Well, sometimes I fell like a robot scooper! 4992. judithathome - 9/7/2013 8:09:41 PM Well, sometimes I fell like a robot scooper!
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