cat pee

I've talked here before about cat pee. I threw out several books I'd brought home from my mother's house after one of our cats doused them.

Well, the night we were packing for our Hawaii trip we trapped the cats inside the house and the one I'd suspected all along gave me a puddle of confirmation for my suspicions. Was he frightened? Mad at being trapped indoors?

I discovered the dark smelly spot on the sideroom bed when I was mostly done packing and ready to sleep. I threw out the books, should I throw away the bed?

When I was looking for cat pee remedies on the internet they all talked about getting the smell out of rugs & fabrics. Soaking books in some solution didn't seem like a good idea, especially for books I could easily replace. But sheets and pajamas go through the wash all the time so what the hell. I mixed up the formula Kent had used to de-skunk the dog.

Hydrogen peroxide
Baking soda
Water

I don't suppose you should use a lot of water, as it's probably not good to dilute the forumla too much. But I needed enough solution to squeeze through the cloth. I was also afraid the peroxide would bleach the color out. In the case of the cat pee impregnated sheets, however, bleaching would be better than throwing them away.

It really works. Wonders. Sniff the cleaned bedding as I might, I can't find a hint of cat pee. Not a suggestion, not an echo. Wonders. ... and no bleaching!

I left off treating the foam mattress until we got back from our trip so the pee was well dried and who knew if the miracle solution would work the same miracle on old dry pee? I am happy to report it did. Big yay!

And all that time alone in the house did the cat(s) confine their wettings to the litter box? Sadly, no. However, I did have the foresight to pile old newspapers on the most likely targets and, yes, the newspapers were pee damp when we got back. Yuck, huh? Some pee seems to have soaked down to my boxes of stuff but it looks like only a few papers were affected and only at the edges. I'll whip up some anti-pee solution and dip the edges. Updates to follow.