I no longer enjoy being a pet owner

Funny that I mentioned cat pee at the end of that last entry. And I mean funny-ironic, because believe me, this ain’t funny-haha.

So, I’m trying to get the last few things taken care of before the housekeepers come tomorrow. Yesterday I thought it’d be a good idea to wash the sheets on the guest bed, since I hadn’t bothered since my in-laws visited in December. (Why would I? No one ever sleeps in there.)

While I was stripping the sheets, I caught a whiff of cat pee. I wondered if maybe they had peed on the floor under the bed? Maybe that’s where it was coming from? Then I realized, no, they had, in fact, peed ALL OVER the bed. The comforter, sheets, pillows, mattress pad, and the mattress itself were all soaked. How I never smelled it before, I have no idea. For those of you familiar with cats, you know that cat pee has that awful ammonia smell that is almost impossible to remove.

All of the bed linens were promptly washed (with bleach), and pillows are cheap, so whatever, I can throw those away and get new ones, no big deal. But the mattress? I didn’t know what to do about that.

I did some Google-ing and found a couple of home remedies, and also got advice from Kris, who has more experience with pet-related disasters than anyone I know. So I’m using a combination of this stuff, and some water mixed with white vinegar to neutralize the ammonia smell. I’m hoping that’ll be enough.

So after my cleaning efforts have dried, we’re going to flip the mattress over (pee-side down), make the bed, and leave it alone until the house sells. But Dave and I unanimously agreed that when it’s time to move, we are not taking the cat pee-soaked bed with us. Even if we can’t smell the pee, chances are good that the cats can, so they’ll just keep going there. So forget it, we’ll just buy a new bed for the guest room after we move. It’s one less thing to have to load onto the truck, right?

I also realize that I really need to take Teenie to the vet. My suspicion is that it was her, since she’s the one who has more litter box issues than any of the other cats, and it seems to be getting worse now that she’s older (she’s almost 12). I don’t know what the vet can do about it if it turns out that she’s incontinent, but I figure it’s worth getting an expert opinion.

3 thoughts on “I no longer enjoy being a pet owner

  1. My friends’ cats were peeing all over the place and they took them to the vet and found out they had crystals in their urine or something like that. They had to switch their food, and now there are much fewer pee incidents.
    Of course, the cats they have are devil spawn, so sometimes they get mad and just pee in front of my friends.

    That oxy-clean stuff works on Sally mishaps. Hopefully it’ll help you, too.

  2. We have had the same thing happen with both Sampson and Butters. Sampson has crystals in his urine and is now on a special oxalate diet. Butters just peed on our bed on Saturday. He’s in his 4th day of a 7-day antibiotics regimen for a UTI, which he gets pretty frequently. I hate to admit it, but we sleep on a bed with a vinyl cover. We put the sheets over the vinyl cover. You may think it’s bizarre, but it’s a great way to keep the bed safe. You can get a queen-size cover that encases the whole mattress at B,B&B for about $20. If it happens again, just toss the sheets in the wash and off you go. When I explain this to some folks they think we’re wild kinksters, but then I am quick to follow-up that I have a bunch of rescue cats. 🙂

  3. My daughter got up this morning and discovered that our sneaky pee’r had gone on her book bag (left laying on the floor in the family room) Not a nice way to start the day . . . I’ve washed it twice and now I’m off to buy some enzymatic deodorizer.

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