Thursday, June 19, 2008

Field Marshal von Vacuum: Part 3

The bedroom was tough. Fewer square feet to vacuum, but this is pretty much where my cat lives. If you’ve ever wondered what a floor covered by a thick mat of cat hair looks like, I can send you pictures.

No, actually I can’t, ‘cause I vacuumed it up! Yes, the Field Marshal sucked it all up like a champ. If I’d known vacuums could do that, I might have cleaned more often.

Note: LOL!

The funny bit, though, is what happened afterwards. I had finished vacuuming and was busy in the kitchen, cleaning with a blow torch and pick-axe, when I wandered back into the bedroom for some reason, not more than ten minutes later.

My cat, perhaps in protest, had vomited in the middle of the floor. Of course, I cleaned it up (eventually), but now I had a lovely dark brown mark dead center in the room.

Now, I don’t actually own any carpet cleaner, so on my next trip to the store, I purchased some and then sat down to clean the carpet. The instructions were simple:

1. Spray area liberally
2. Dab gently with a cloth or sponge until dry

I can ‘spray liberally.’ That’s no problem. The ‘dab gently’ was the tricky part. I can ‘rub vigorously.’ I can ‘mash mercilessly.’ I can even ‘wipe with extreme prejudice.’ ‘Dab gently’ was vague. Do I poke it? Do I pat it? Should I, perhaps, hum a soothing tune whilst dabbing gently?

Also, ‘until dry’ seemed a bit excessive. We could be talking hours here. I’m a busy man. I have bathrooms to clean, blogs to write, and games to play. I can’t spend an afternoon fondling a stain.

So, I sprayed the hell out of the stain, halfheartedly poked it with a cloth for a few minutes, left the cloth on it, and then prodded it with my foot when I walked by.

It worked, more or less. The stain is mostly gone, though if you squint or if the light is right, you can still see it.

The moral of the story, gentle reader, is this: A fool and his monkey are soon parted.

No, wait, that’s a different story. This one doesn’t have a moral.

Cheers,
-Jason

4 comments:

Unknown said...

What? No moral? What kind of a story is that?
Kidding. It made me laugh.

Anonymous said...

Yay, Jason has a vacuum that works! Huzzah! Celebrate!

A reminder: regular brushing of your gastrointestinally challenged kitty will minimize fur loss onto apartment surfaces *and* reduce furball regurgitation. The use of Vetbasis Hairball gel would also help prevent urping.

Regarding cleaning, my older fur-child has always had problems with furballs, so I've been cleaning urp stains all of his 15 years of life. The one product that really does get out both the stain and the smell is Get Serious. It should be available in the dog section (why only the dog section, I have no clue; it's not limited to canine clean-up) of your local PetSmart. Follow the instructions carefully, though, since it works differently than your usual cleaning solution. I recommend using a microfiber cloth of any kind for best results--they're typically more absorbent than the average terry cloth towel/rag.

Oh, and vacuuming on a regular basis, say every two weeks or so, makes for less work overall vacuum-wise. Me mudder tawt me that... ;-)

Purrs from Lynnwood, WA --
--
Deb and the Wunderkats, Joshua & Taavi

Anonymous said...

You seem to be doing a lot of cleaning....there must be a new girl in the picture...best of luck!!

Jason Janicki said...

I'll try to provide a moral with the next bit, I promise :)

Cool, I'll try more brushing and the cleaner you recommend. I should probably also vacuum more often :)

No, unfortunatly, no new girls. :( There is always hope, though :)