Saturday, March 7, 2009

Barf and carpet.....

Do NOT get along...they are mortal enemies...

There is something in dog vomit or the other end exits that has some sort of industrial dye in it that will stain any and all carpets within 75 feet of the mess...

Until we moved to our current house, the # of accidents on carpets was able to be counted on one hand.

HOWEVER..get brand new carpeting...and apparently when our dogs see brand new carpeting (a very LIGHT shade of off whitish) they get a sudden gag reflex or intestinal distress (aka the shits). Since we have moved to this place we have had more issues with the carpeting than I can EVER remember in all my years of owning dogs.

Granted..the idiot who invented that color of carpeting must be mental..and we are just as mental to buy a house with (at the time ) three border collies and a cat. White carpet is for...not sure what woudl be a good use for it actually......

I have always found carpeting to be nasty...a gross filter of sorts...holding in dirt sand whatever. Being from a farming background...you also tracked in poop in one form or another...and it just stays in the carpeting..sure,carpeting purists will tell you that a professional cleaning will get rid of all the ickys...whatever. It is still in there....yuck.

I like flooring that can be CLEANED, tile, wood floors, even linoleum--clean clean clean. No harboring of any critters, dust mites, bacteria smells...yes we have 5 (now to be 7) dogs in the house and I like my house CLEAN...a losing battle, but damnit I keep trying to win!!!! We vacume, we dust, we sweep, we mop and we like things in place....yes BOTH Andy and I!!

Our house is I would say about 75% carpet....the kitchen and diningroom are not carpeted...and the bathrooms...when it is brand new carpeting I am cool with that, no other persons dead skin cells lingering in the folds of fabric...no other persons dirt or whatever. Clean!

Then enter the FIRST week in the house....Ace decides to have an ass explosion..he STARTED on the linoleum...but OH NO..he HAD to continue down the carpeted hall..thanks Ace. His first accident EVER.

And then from then on we just had that going on..never intentional accidents...all our dogs are very well potty trained.....but accidents non the less. And in my brain it will NEVER be out of the carpet....

Fast forward to this evening..I am sitting watching TV and Klink comes up and proceeds to barf all over the floor....raw chicken and got knows what the hell else is there...

Right up there with carpets is picking up barf...I would rather clean up cold barf, not warm barf. Yes I have thought this through, I like cold barf. Warm barf is just wrong. However, I can't just let it sit there to "cool" as I have 2 other dogs that are DYING to snarf that up (another hated thing..but alas)....so I get the paper towels and do the hand thing...the feeling is like dipping your hand into a bowl of hot oatmeal...and I just about hurl (a reason I do NOT have children....soooo gross!). Get the "solids" cleaned up and then we have this lovely slime puddle that needs to be dealt with.

Thank GOD we have a Bissell Pro Heat shampooer. I charge that baby up and hit the carpet with steam and soap.....clean clean clean.....DISINFECT. Klink barfs again...not on the linoleum, but about 7 feet from the first barf...great.

Clean that up.....

Now we have two REALLY REALLY clean spots on the carpet....and one can see how dirty the rest of the room is......damnit. So tomorrow I will be cleaning the livingroom carpet...and probably the bedrooms, and the hallways etc etc.

I want tile and hard wood...I hate carpet...gag...

7 comments:

BCxFour said...

I hear you and have empathy - trust me, we built our house from the ground up and I stupidly chose vanilla/light beige carpeting throughout the whole stinking house.

The best and easiest way I have found to quickly clean up barf, poop, runny whatnots is with a large solid metal spatula and a bunch of paper towels. I never have to actually touch ANYTHING.

Take the metal spatula - as fast as humanly possible after the accident and press it down right next to the mess and then like lifing a pancake off the grill (making sure to push down into the carpeting) slide the spatula under the mess and drop it onto the towel sitting next to it. This helps get it off without pushing it into the carpet when you are 'scrubbing'. If I do it right, get to it before it is absorbed I can get it up almost completely then it will only need a quick enzyme cleanser. VIOLA! Never have to touch warm puke again!

Loretta Mueller said...

A barf pancake...shudder!!!

HEHE..but that is a great way to get that stuff picked up!! Just have to make sure we have a "special" spatula for that!!!! LOL

An English Shepherd said...

My Mum and Dad just had to buy a carpet cleaner as well :-) They had forgoten how puppies can have little (or big!) accidents ;-)

Laura Carson said...

I am SO there with you. I too have just off-whitish carpet throughout my house. In my defense, however, when I had my house built I had ONE dog... a NOT border collie.

Linc decided to urp up the entire contents of his stomach repeatedly yesterday... many ooey gooey piles of *shudder* I can't even talk about it. Could he do it on the linoleum? Nooooooooo.

signed,
sincerely feeling your pain

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain, I too have more or less white carpet (well it used to be). I chose it, but we didn't have BCs then, just 'normal' dogs :-) Of course we did have little Max, the barf-o-matic, he was capable of standing in front of you, looking entirely normal, and then disgorging his entire stomach contents without any of the customary preliminaries. Still, Nature's Miracle and I held our ground for 10 years, in the face of 6 indoor dogs and 2 litters of puppies, until the arrival of Sweat Foot. Sweat Foot, or Daley as he is known officially, has an amazingly efficient cooling system, either that or he's very anxious all the time. We live in one of the dryest climates in the nation, I regularly get electric shocks off the dogs it's so dry and my hands crack in the winter, yet Daley always leaves 4 perfect footprints on the patio when he comes indoors! His paws are like faucets!! So now I have little brown paths all through the house and I've rather thrown in the towel. This is a major defeat for me, I don't think i'm a clean freak, but my dog friends smirk when I say I must go home and clean my filthy house, so I guess I am. I did spend this afternoon scrubbing grout with a toothbrush........

Sarah said...

i hear ya on that one!

i think carpet is some sort barf magnet, the worst is when you try to help the dog to the lino, and in doing so there is a huge trail of barf instead of a small pile

BCXFour - metal spatula, great idea!

Loretta Mueller said...

I have to admit..Zip is a genius...she had morning sickness with her litter and NEVER EVER EVER barfed on the carpet...only the linoleum! GOOD DOG!