Tip Tuesday: Battle the Dry Air

Last week my husband blamed me for dripping hair color (purple) on our bedspread. I thought I had been really careful about it. I guess I wasn't.

And then I found a variety of dark red spots on the tile in our bathroom floor. Again, I didn't think I was that crazy with the hair color...but I guess I was.

And on Saturday, the real culprit reared his little furry head. As I was getting ready for our housewarming party, Beckett, our cat, came in and used his litterbox. On the way out of the swinging door, he sneezed. Blood sprayed everywhere. I screamed for my husband and he came running, holding the cat in the bathroom so he wouldn't drip blood on the new (cream) carpet.

"Gimme some cotton balls," demanded my husband who was holding Beckett down as Beckett continued to sneeze and spray blood.

I went to the "stockpile" in our closet and grabbed the first thing that made sense. A maxi-pad. It IS what it is for. So here's my husband, holding a feminine pad under our cats nose as he continues to sneeze and spray blood. Still.

"Cottonballs," yelled my husband. I finally found them and he did get the bleeding to stop...but it took about 20 minutes. My husband, who notoriously gets bloody noses in the winter, informed me that he had one a few days before.

We love the new house but it is so big that it makes it hard for a pot of boiling water to humidify the air...unlike the apartment.

So I've been air drying the items I know my husband isn't picky about and trying to occasionally boil water. I also leave the bathroom door open when I shower to help by getting some of the humidity into the house.

After the last big nose bleed of the cat, my husband put some Neosporin on his nose. That seemed to help....that and what I've done to put some humidity in the home.

At least I know it wasn't my hair color.

Tip Tuesday: Cover the Couch!

We walked in the door last night from our long weekend out of town with family and friends. Whenever we do so, we come home to find the couches covered with tarp. Since my brothers were waiting on our front porch last night to eat supper with us, they uncovered and folded up the green tarp, moving back the couches.

Several years back on our two week long road trip out west, in spite of a house sitter, we discovered that our cat, Maestro like to mess on the couch. He became nervous while we packed for the anticipated camping road trip with bags and supplies strewn across the floor. At this time he developed a behavioral pattern of using the couch as a litter box to let us know he was upset with us leaving town.

So anytime we are gone out of town, we push the couches together and throw a big tarp over them blocking off the bottoms so that he cannot access them in any way. We also make sure the bedroom doors are closed (just in case). Then we clean out his litter box and stock him up on food and water.

A few months ago, this tarp actually saved our hides. We did not notice that Judah had closed the bathroom door on our way out of the house. We came back to a horrid smell but at least our couches were still usable and clean. The tarp, on the other hand, made its way out to the trash.

Another time, we forgot to stock Maestro up on extra food and water for a weekend. That weekend we came home to find that he had actually pulled off a couple of our books from the bookshelves to chew on the paper. We had to clean up little, ripped pieces of paper all over the floor.

Animals/pets can be funny when it comes to letting you know how they feel. My tip today is be prepared for the worst. Being prepared and resourceful will save you time and energy cleaning up and money trying to replace your couches.

Do you have any funny stories about your pets while you are gone?

Wash Wednesday: Tis the Season for Shedding!

I am so happy that spring is finally here. I have the windows open letting in fresh air and the sounds of birds chirping. The spring flowers are up and starting to bloom in daffodil yellows and hyacinth purples. The bright blues skies overhead shine down with the spring sunshine as we walk and play outside.

As you can see there are not too many down sides to spring, especially after a long winter except maybe tornadoes and storms, allergies, and shedding. Yes, if you have a pet, tis the season for shedding.

With the warm breezes of spring comes shedding season. My long-haired, orange cat is the perfect example of accumulating a thick coat of hair over the winter followed by dispersing it when the weather turns at the tiniest hint of spring. I have learned over the years how to cope with all the extra hair and fur bunnies that float around the house.

Perhaps the best way to cope with the extra hair removal is combing my pet on regular basis during this season. In fact, often times I take him outside to the porch and hold him down while I use my FURminator comb. This comb is excellent at taking off loose hair by the gallons. The mess of combing is contained to outdoors as I usually let the hair just float away in the breeze for the birds.

Shampooing your cat enhances the combing, limiting hair removal and eventually hairballs. My own cat does not like baths though so we wipe him down with cleaning wipes you can find in the pet store. We use these wipes after combing so that he does not rub off the loose hair onto the furniture.

Inside, I do extra vacuuming on the carpet to keep up with the hair. I wipe down the couch and chair cushions with the added task of a lint roller to collect any remaining hair. And it seems like I cycle through more laundry to control the extra fur.

I am anxious to hear what you do to combat this side effect of spring? In the meantime, enjoy the nice weather.