Clean house and pets: Do as I say, not as I do
By Gina Spadafori
October 5, 2007
Our Dr. Becker is the Designated Interview Person (DIP) around the Pet Connection. He’s cute, he’s funny and he thinks fast on his feet. Me? I generally think of the perfect witty thing to say three hours after the interview’s over. (Christie’s good, too, by the way, and I keep encouraging her to do more speaking gigs.)
But I do my share of interviews as well, enough so that I often forget about them until weeks or months later, when the stories come back to me in my newsfeeds. Like this one, on how to keep a home clean when you have pets:
If you live with a shedding, dirt-digging pooch, keeping your house clean can seem like a challenge mightier than teaching an old dog a new trick. From hair imbedded in carpets to paw prints on linoleum, it may feel as if you need to follow your dog around 24/7 to keep up. But tidying after your best friend need not be a full-time job. Before you call in a maid brigade, check out these tips for clean coexistence with your canine.
“Keeping your house clean starts with keeping your dog clean and in good health,” says Gina Spadafori, author of Dogs for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons). “Keep your dog bathed and brushed. You’ll minimize odors and shedding.” Dogs smell better after a bath. Also, remember that hair caught in the brush or comb won’t end up under the bed. Shedding occurs seasonally in dogs, typically in the fall and spring, so take extra care around April and September.
I laughed out loud when I read this a little while ago, not because the information isn’t correct — it is — but because just an hour earlier I’d left behind a living room with fur bunnies (secret combination of cat, dog and rabbit fur) rolling across the living room like tumbleweeds across the desert.
It’s always like that towards the end of the week. Tomorrow I get out the Dyson Animal
Oh, by the way: Some editor along the changed my quotes to be “grammatically correct” but wrong wrong wrong. I never, ever use “it” in place of “him” or “her” when referring to animals. A pet is not a piece of furniture! This makes me crazy.
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I read the news today, oh boy: KPIX in San Francisco has found another spot where state Department of Transportation workers dump the bodies of road-kill pets and other animals, in apparent violation of policy. How many people want to bet there are plenty more, and not just in California?
I say you don’t have to worry until the dust bunnies are as big as real bunnies!
It’s actually the litter tracking that really makes me nuts. I vacuum the ‘runway’ carpeting outside the litterbox bathroom almost every night.
Comment by 2CatMom — October 5, 2007 @ 10:19 am
One of the most “odiferous” parts on a dog is between the pads of the feet (the only part of a dog that sweats). The “doggy smell” that pervades most homes with canine inhabitants results from the constant contact of doggie feet as they pad around on that wonderful odor reservoir AKA “the carpeting”.
If you take the time to wash your dog’s feet when they come in from outside, you’ll really cut down on the “doggie odor”. And this can be done fairly easily by dipping their feet in a pan of soapy water kept by the door just for that purpose, then wiped with paper towels. Dogs who are taught to do this learn to stand patiently for the procedure.
For many folks, the doggie odor that goes with living with dogs isn’t that big a deal. But if you are someone for whom it is a problem, then you will probably find that washing your dogs’ feet frequently is well worth the effort.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — October 5, 2007 @ 10:48 am
Just curious: I thought I read on this blog or in one of your columns that you have bad allergies. How do you cope this time of year?
Comment by Diane — October 5, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
It’s a fair question! I, um, suffer.
Actually, I suffer a lot less than I used to. When I was a child, the treatments for asthma were pretty minimal and pets were a problem, although I had them anyway. That lasted well into my 30s, until finally I had a couple of near-death experiences. (One time, I actually had the incredible experience of watching the emergency room team work on my body below. Wooo, was THAT weird!)
But … a couple things changed for me. Most important, a medication called Advair. (Not a commercial endorsement, but the truth.) It reduced my asthma symptoms almost to nil. When I do have a rough patch of breathing (typically in spring and fall), I have a nebulizer and can usually get lung capacity back to where the Advair can work its magic. I also have an air filter, although I don’t use it very often.
Losing a couple hundred pounds also seems to have helped the breathing. (I had gastric bypass surgery in 2000.)
The rest of my allergy symptoms — sneezing, runny eyes, etc. — are seasonal and pretty easilly controlled by other meds. But I really don’t care about that, since if can breathe I can deal with the rest of it.
The key (in my experience) is to find a good allergist and a good pulmonary specialist who doesn’t start with, “OK, first, get rid of your pets …”
Once I found doctors willing to work with me and who accepted that the pets WERE NOT LEAVING, then we could get somewhere on the treatment.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — October 5, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
Wow, Gina. That’s all I can say. Just. Wow.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — October 5, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
It’s all in the past. :)
I can’t believe how much better — healthier, happier and more excited about life — I will be at 50 than I was at 40. (Assuming I make it another two months and change to the big 5-0.)
And there’s still plenty of room for improvement …
Comment by Gina Spadafori — October 5, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
I concur wholeheartedly on the Advair. It, and the Zyrtec, and the Singulair, and the mountains of Sudafed, are the only things that allow me to have my cat. It’s expensive but it is 200% worth it :)
Comment by Susan — October 6, 2007 @ 10:06 pm