As I pulled cat urine carpet and pad from our living room and hall today I was thinking of new and exciting ways I could blog about cat pee. Looking back, I wish the largest contributing factor of drama to my day was stinky carpet.
One of our window frames is broken - it won’t stay up. It’s been like that since we moved in - there was a piece of wood used to hold the window open. We didn’t think much of it because 1) we hadn’t opened our windows much before the last week or two and 2) it was behind our couch and pretty inaccessible. That is until, today when we were pulling up the carpet.
Emma was looking out the window and we told her several times not to touch the window. I finished telling her for literally the fifth time in twenty minutes, turned around…and heard screaming. She knocked the wood out and got her hands crushed by the very heavy window. I am thanking God that some of the wood got stuck in the window so th
e whole weight of it wasn’t on her baby fingers. I thought her fingers would be broken because it is so heavy and she immediately had huge blisters and some bleeding. We took her to the E.R. It was our first trip there for one of our children.
The hospital was more tramautic for her than the window incident. It was new and scary, she was in pain and to top it off she hadn’t napped yet today. The poor baby. Through the x-rays and blood pressure tests she kept crying to go to the “Mickey Mousey store” (The Disney Store) as we had told her earlier in the day we would do soon.
We were told a good report: no broken bones! and headed off to the Mickey Mousey store where you better believe she picked out some fine princess goods. She ended up with a silver princess cardigan, a silver princess skirt and an Emma- sized Fuggarugga doll.
As it stands, my baby girls are sound asleep and my living room smells better.
Wow - I am glad to hear that she is ok. Yikes.
Now for that cat urine. I’ve owned a carpet restoration business since March of ‘85 so here’s what you do.
If this is your home remove the carpet and the cushion. Use gloves and one of those surgical type masks if you can. Pull the carpet up and cut it from the backing. If it is berber carpet make sure you cut all the way through or it will run on you. Again if it is berber carpet glue the edge so it won’t run later. If this isn’t your home still remove the carpet but try to replace with a piece from a closet. Look for a closet area that you can not see when you stand in the door way.
Now for my favorite part!. Get a electric sander (preferably a belt sander) with a course belt on it and sand the wood floor. sand all the black out of it. If it is concrete use muriatic acid and water. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE ACID!! After you’ve sanded the wood floor use a sealer like Thompson’s water sealer to seal it. Also pick up a black light from the hardware store and look around the lower portions of your walls. Cats will spray there and it will look like a CSI crime scene at night with the black light.
Glad your little girl is okay. Don’t beet yourself up too much. Everybody is learning at this age. That’s why they are called “accidents”.
Final think about the cat. If you live near a coastal environment take the cat and put in a crab pot. You should get about a dozen crabs off one medium sized cat.
I’mmmm just kidding.
Oh wow. You wrote about it so calmly! I’m sure it was a VERY trying day for you. I’m sure you’re sound asleep now … as it should be.
oh my gosh, friend. i’m glad my emma-cakes is okay. kiss her little fingers for me…
i smiled at the thought of an emma-sized fuggarugga doll. wowzers.
and M54’s suggestion to stick a cat in a crab pot is FANTASTIC! niel would love that!
I’m suddenly a fan of crab fishing!
Sorry you all had such a traumatic day, but it seemed to end up in Emma’s favor.
OUCH!!!!!!!!!! And I hope you got a treat for yourself too… taking kiddos to the hospital is so traumatic… I’m so glad she’s okay.
M54,
Thanks!
Crab fishing sounds like a great plan!
It’s not our house and we don’t know when the cat was here…we certainly don’t have cat.
We pulled up the carpet already and that’s what we did in the girls room too - sanded and resealed.
Thanks for stopping by!
Poor Emma…..that’s a big owie! I am sure the life sized fuggarugga doll cheered her right up though!
Glad to hear she is okay.
uuuuu…
i am slightly stressed reading this.
i need a nap now.