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Tales of Cat Pee and Computer Set Ups
7/21/10 05:15 pmI had my computer set up on an old oak desk that belonged to my great-grandfather. It was a knee-hole desk, had 3 drawers on the right side and was about 3 feet deep from front to back across the top. There was just room for the tower, the monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Over the years, cats have puked on the desk, on the wall behind the desk, down the front of my old computer, and said puke has been duly cleaned up. No worries.
But then, Bill decided that the kneehole area under the desk was the absolute perfect place to indulge in a bit of subrosa peeing. Luckily, it was against the wall, so the carpet isn't ruined.
I had been smelling cat pee in there for a while; whilst I may be a Genuine Crazy Cat Lady, I insist on my house not smelling like a GCCL's house. Cat litter gets scooped at least twice a day, and totally changed out once a month, cat boxes washed and disinfected, and left to sit in the sun until dry. So you can imagine how perturbed I was to smell cat pee and not be able to figure out where it was.
Until last night, when Bill strolled under the desk while I was sitting there, and then I heard the tell-tale psssssshhhhht of pee hitting the wall. "Bill!" I said. "Are you peeing under there?" I didn't get all loud and freaked, because I didn't want him running through the house spraying pee everywhere. I think he did it originally because of Beau -- I saw him pee on the wall right after we got Beau, and I cleaned it up immediately with enzyme cleaner, but I'd never seen him do it in here.
So I knew it was an established thing now, since we've had Beau about 6 months. I decided I'd move everything out of my room that was on the pee wall, clean the wall really well, clean the carpet, and make sure there was no smell under there anymore.
Last night I disconnected the computer and moved it into the spare bedroom, along with my chair, the shelf unit the printer was on, the scanner, everything I could move by myself. Today I got Mike to help me move the desk, and I shoved the cat sand box out of the way.
Cleaned the wall twice, waited for it to dry, then painted Kilz over it. 3 coats. Vacuumed the carpet. Put stain remover on the carpet (there was some ancient Brownie vomit under there), scrubbed it in, then cleaned the carpet along the entire wall 4 times. I decided I'd like a little more room for my stuff, so I liberated my sewing table from the spare room, which will work better -- it's open underneath, is a foot narrower but 2 feet longer, and smells like pine (which stands to reason, since it's made from pine 2x4's and pine plywood).
Vacuumed the rest of the carpet and cleaned it, something I have to do about once a month anyway since Maggie has a vomiting issue. Once it was all dry, we moved the new table in, I hooked up the computer, put the scanner on the shelving unit along with a small storage unit for the stuff that was in the top drawer of the desk, and put the printer on the shelf underneath the table.
Now I have a foot more space between my bed and the computer. I feel positively spacious. And NO MORE PEE SMELL!!!!! Well, I get just a whiff every now and then, but I think if I spray under there really well with some X-O that will take care of it. Tomorrow I'll do my litter box routine a little early just to make sure.
Now wasn't that a boring, hum-drum, GCCL post?
Oh, a treasure I found! A Dogs Playing Poker mousepad!
Over the years, cats have puked on the desk, on the wall behind the desk, down the front of my old computer, and said puke has been duly cleaned up. No worries.
But then, Bill decided that the kneehole area under the desk was the absolute perfect place to indulge in a bit of subrosa peeing. Luckily, it was against the wall, so the carpet isn't ruined.
I had been smelling cat pee in there for a while; whilst I may be a Genuine Crazy Cat Lady, I insist on my house not smelling like a GCCL's house. Cat litter gets scooped at least twice a day, and totally changed out once a month, cat boxes washed and disinfected, and left to sit in the sun until dry. So you can imagine how perturbed I was to smell cat pee and not be able to figure out where it was.
Until last night, when Bill strolled under the desk while I was sitting there, and then I heard the tell-tale psssssshhhhht of pee hitting the wall. "Bill!" I said. "Are you peeing under there?" I didn't get all loud and freaked, because I didn't want him running through the house spraying pee everywhere. I think he did it originally because of Beau -- I saw him pee on the wall right after we got Beau, and I cleaned it up immediately with enzyme cleaner, but I'd never seen him do it in here.
So I knew it was an established thing now, since we've had Beau about 6 months. I decided I'd move everything out of my room that was on the pee wall, clean the wall really well, clean the carpet, and make sure there was no smell under there anymore.
Last night I disconnected the computer and moved it into the spare bedroom, along with my chair, the shelf unit the printer was on, the scanner, everything I could move by myself. Today I got Mike to help me move the desk, and I shoved the cat sand box out of the way.
Cleaned the wall twice, waited for it to dry, then painted Kilz over it. 3 coats. Vacuumed the carpet. Put stain remover on the carpet (there was some ancient Brownie vomit under there), scrubbed it in, then cleaned the carpet along the entire wall 4 times. I decided I'd like a little more room for my stuff, so I liberated my sewing table from the spare room, which will work better -- it's open underneath, is a foot narrower but 2 feet longer, and smells like pine (which stands to reason, since it's made from pine 2x4's and pine plywood).
Vacuumed the rest of the carpet and cleaned it, something I have to do about once a month anyway since Maggie has a vomiting issue. Once it was all dry, we moved the new table in, I hooked up the computer, put the scanner on the shelving unit along with a small storage unit for the stuff that was in the top drawer of the desk, and put the printer on the shelf underneath the table.
Now I have a foot more space between my bed and the computer. I feel positively spacious. And NO MORE PEE SMELL!!!!! Well, I get just a whiff every now and then, but I think if I spray under there really well with some X-O that will take care of it. Tomorrow I'll do my litter box routine a little early just to make sure.
Now wasn't that a boring, hum-drum, GCCL post?
Oh, a treasure I found! A Dogs Playing Poker mousepad!
