Stupid Cat (Not Ours)/Stupid Speakers
Mar. 8th, 2007 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseLast night, as I arrived home (About 10:30 PM), I opened our screen door, and before I even got in the house, I was hit by this animal stink. My first thought was that something had died right there between the doors (in spite of there being no poor lost mouse or the like in sight), but that wasn't quite right, it wasn't rotten as such, though it was icky.
It was weaker inside the house, but sort of pervasive around the main floor. Colin remarked that he'd noticed it, too, and it was strongest by the door. He thought it smelled like a cat marking territory, and as soon as he said that, the musk-and-urine smell clicked.
Yup. Someone's tomcat had sprayed the screen door in such a way that some of it got *under* and into the space between the doors. None actually got *in* the house, but...
The one place the doors are insufficiently sealed even by weatherstripping is, of course, the very bottom. There's a minuscule draft; not enough to do more than cool the floor for about a foot, unless it's -30. (It moves powder right in front of the door about a centimetre, but can't stir it past there at all. And I'd cleared away the snow that usually blocks the draft a few days before, since it had packed high enough to keep the screen door from closing instead of just sealing it. That made enough room for the smell to get inside even though the spray didn't.
The proof, as if we needed any, was the way our cats fixated on the spot when the inside door was open. (Today, Elise spent so much time sniffing as I got set up for scouring the door that she hardly realized that she could get out.)
I dumped a bunch of pet deodorizer on the spot, between the doors and just inside, as a makeshift until morning, and we put the air purifier on.
That helped make it less, but not enough. So today I vacuumed up the original deodorizer, dumped mroe down, then scrubbed the door and the frame with cleaners; alas, the frame being wood with the paint cracked, I think some soaked in. Then I shovelled the snow around the porch until I had a nice wall where the cat had got onto it, and undermined the snow a bit on the other side of the barrier so the cat couldn't find secure footing, so this wouldn't happen again, if the citrus in the cleaners wasn't enough. I was this close to spritzing the new barrier with lemon juice, as that discourages most cats I've met. (All of which will, not incidentally, prevent Elise from hiding under the porch should she get out.)
Then I mopped every area I'd walked in in the process, just in case, in the course of scouring off the door, I'd stepped in something tainted. Which will make this the first time any portion of the main floor has been mopped twice in one week. Priobably the first time it's been mopped twice in one *month*, really...
There's still a bit of the smell if you're in the kitchen, though it's clearing faster.
It would be the kitchen. Stupid cat.
I guess we aren't having anyone over *this* weekend.
_______________
Earlier, while playing Pandora, the computer speakers screeched like some hellish thing. *Not* part of the song, and the volume was based on the speaker setting (which has to be stupidly high for one speaker to agree to make non-crackly noise as it is) rather than on the Pandora volume (Which was almost rock bottom to compensate). Needless to say, I chose not to keep listening just now (Colin having gone to bed). But that speaker's been crackling and making other annoying sounds more as it is.
Bleah. Just as I was getting used to having sound on my computer.
It was weaker inside the house, but sort of pervasive around the main floor. Colin remarked that he'd noticed it, too, and it was strongest by the door. He thought it smelled like a cat marking territory, and as soon as he said that, the musk-and-urine smell clicked.
Yup. Someone's tomcat had sprayed the screen door in such a way that some of it got *under* and into the space between the doors. None actually got *in* the house, but...
The one place the doors are insufficiently sealed even by weatherstripping is, of course, the very bottom. There's a minuscule draft; not enough to do more than cool the floor for about a foot, unless it's -30. (It moves powder right in front of the door about a centimetre, but can't stir it past there at all. And I'd cleared away the snow that usually blocks the draft a few days before, since it had packed high enough to keep the screen door from closing instead of just sealing it. That made enough room for the smell to get inside even though the spray didn't.
The proof, as if we needed any, was the way our cats fixated on the spot when the inside door was open. (Today, Elise spent so much time sniffing as I got set up for scouring the door that she hardly realized that she could get out.)
I dumped a bunch of pet deodorizer on the spot, between the doors and just inside, as a makeshift until morning, and we put the air purifier on.
That helped make it less, but not enough. So today I vacuumed up the original deodorizer, dumped mroe down, then scrubbed the door and the frame with cleaners; alas, the frame being wood with the paint cracked, I think some soaked in. Then I shovelled the snow around the porch until I had a nice wall where the cat had got onto it, and undermined the snow a bit on the other side of the barrier so the cat couldn't find secure footing, so this wouldn't happen again, if the citrus in the cleaners wasn't enough. I was this close to spritzing the new barrier with lemon juice, as that discourages most cats I've met. (All of which will, not incidentally, prevent Elise from hiding under the porch should she get out.)
Then I mopped every area I'd walked in in the process, just in case, in the course of scouring off the door, I'd stepped in something tainted. Which will make this the first time any portion of the main floor has been mopped twice in one week. Priobably the first time it's been mopped twice in one *month*, really...
There's still a bit of the smell if you're in the kitchen, though it's clearing faster.
It would be the kitchen. Stupid cat.
I guess we aren't having anyone over *this* weekend.
_______________
Earlier, while playing Pandora, the computer speakers screeched like some hellish thing. *Not* part of the song, and the volume was based on the speaker setting (which has to be stupidly high for one speaker to agree to make non-crackly noise as it is) rather than on the Pandora volume (Which was almost rock bottom to compensate). Needless to say, I chose not to keep listening just now (Colin having gone to bed). But that speaker's been crackling and making other annoying sounds more as it is.
Bleah. Just as I was getting used to having sound on my computer.
