Building Moxie Archive: Because 78.2% of Our Readership is Female AND Has 1 or More Cats :: How to Remove the Smell of Cat Pee

A Miracle? – Nature’s Miracle?

This is Gia (Hiya G, good girl.)

These are our fish (Yep, I need to do some research on tank cleaning.)

This is LuLu (Ask me the story sometime about how we came to adopt her.)

This is Marz (My contribution, and yeah, I had a cat as a single man. So what?)

This is Foof (Jen’s, and more on her in a minute.)

Those are our cats and you met them previously in the post: Cats, a Mouse and This Old House.

This is our dining room, usually in some state of “dumping-groundness” and more so when we are in the midst of active remodeling. (Please withhold any comments on its current state of completeness or on its . . . decoratedness. Thanks.)

See:

This is a 9×12 (approx) Karastan rug; Design = Sarouk; Pattern = 724.  I only know this because I flipped over the edge and found the label. (Prior — I knew that we paid $400 for it via a friend, and it went very well in the dining room of our last house. Here — we probably could do better, but the dark(ishness) does makes for good hiding of kid dirt and such. We have owned it for 6 or 7 years. And truth — not really sure if it’s a good rug or brand, but I do see that name a little bit.)

See:

To the left of that label, you’ll find Recommendations for Care & Cleaning. (Note: While it is hard to see — nowhere on it does it mention the benefits of adding one or more cats.)

Now — Back to Foof.

Foof is the shyest, softest, most polite and yes, ironically, the most loving of our three cats.  My daughters have taken to her and she to them.

But why then . . . Why would this old gal have such a kinky thing with cardboard boxes and . . . plastic bags?  Always has, and . . . Yep, plastic bags!  I’ve seen her . . .  and for some reason, they can be even more inviting than a freshly loaded litter box.  We have learned that . . . for the most part.  (Yeah, Foofy I’m looking at you . . . you (and I don’t have an emoticon for this face).)

And here’s the thing — while the dark(ishness) is great at hiding kid dirt, it is also great at hiding, well, cat pee.  And . . . for anyone that knows a little bit about cat pee . . . well . . .

Enter Nature’s Miracle

By my best resources, Nature’s Miracle is about my only option with the hope to remove the smell of cat pee (from my carpet). Industrial-strength sizing -1 gal. for $40 at local PetSavCoALot.  BUT I am more skeptical now than when I started brewing this post.  Some success before, but this time and about half way in . . . repeat applications, yes (which was expected) and I think the smell has actually gotten worse.   I’m not really ready (and I do have a few other projects going on)  to toss this rug just yet.  But at this point we don’t know.

And that’s it . . . If you know anything about anything — best methods of cat pee neutralizing, anything about cat behavior or anything about rugs please comment.

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Thanks for reading, and a pretty fitting way to end this week.  Some good points, but mostly well … Thanks G+ (not alone). I expect and assume typos, and I think we are gonna try something a little light for next week — The todo list grew rather large rather quickly.  Have a great weekend and maybe I update this post.  And if you were wondering, that demographic information was in fact — made up . . . huge in England AND in tiny canopy-hanging squirrel villages where there are equal parts man, ladies and cat lovers … out!  jb

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Update (2.13.2012):  You know, sometimes you start an article and realize by the time you are finished that it should have went in a completely different way.   As noted in the comments below, I ended up putting the Nature’s Miracle up against and in a side by side test with the OdoBan (a picture may be found in our Facebook photo gallery) — a product recommended to me by friend Brenda S. Lynn and found @ the Home Depot.  Hands down, the OdoBan did a much better job.  So much so that we were able to save this carpet.  But be warned — this is not a one time gig; this product required multiple applications and required care with the hardwood floor below.

Thanks out to Brenda and maybe a follow up post eventually.  ~jb