Feature Final

Pets are a normal thing to have for most families. You could have a dog, a cat, a bird, a lizard or snake, a fish, you name it. They’ll lay with you, play with you, sleep with you, walk with you and even eat with you. They become a part of your family, and everyone in a family makes mistakes. However, this type of mistake is a little more disgusting then most.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 I went to work right after I came home from school. Working for fast food isn’t exactly the highlight of my life however I get paid and I work with amazing people. After a long day of school and work all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. I made my way home, down to my room and before I could even change my clothes, I smelt something; it was lingering in the air, tickling the inside of my nose telling me to run away. It smelt like something died. Then, BAM! My cat runs out of my bedroom door. It’s a little strange, but then I started putting the pieces together. I had an odd smell in my room and a cat that bolted so fast I could barely see her.

I started searching my room for any type of bodily function, you know what I’m talking about, that thing that just so happened to be hiding somewhere in the corners of my room. I found nothing. “Maybe,” I thought to myself, “Maybe I’m just going crazy and there really isn’t anything wrong in my room.” So I sat on my bed, I pulled open my covers and there it was. Four piles of cat poop pressed into my comforter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stripped my bed all the way to the mattress cover, afraid that it might have been sitting there so long that it sunk through all of the layers. I carefully placed my foul bed linens in a room next to the laundry so nothing (or no one) could get into it on accident (like another cat maybe). I walk upstairs a little ticked because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I find my way to my mom’s bedroom to tell her of this stinky news.

“Jessica, you’re just going to have to sleep on the couch until we fix this.”

The couch, that’s all I could think about. It’s the one place that is not only uncomfortable, but out in the open. Forget about having a good night’s sleep, you’ll have cats crawling up and down your body, across your face and meowing in your ears.

And that is exactly what happened. I woke up three to five times a night to find a cat purring in my ear, or sleeping on my head. And every time I’d push them off they would just come back again and again and again and again.

My brother is the only one in my family that hasn’t been surprised with a little present in his room. In fact when he found out I was sleeping on the couch he only had one thing to say, “Wow Jess, how do you let this happen? I leave my bedroom door open every night and I never see anything wrong with my room.” And of course he says that with the biggest smirk on his face, like he’s special or our pets like him better. However, he knows a thing or two about mopping up a little cat pee in the kitchen, soaking dog pee out of the carpet, picking up a few stray pieces of poop in the living room or hallway but never in his room.

My mom, Margie, had changed her comforter at least three times in the past two years. She knows a thing or two about what to do when you pet has a “dirty little accident” where you sleep. She washes the comforter three times, letting the water soak in each time before checking to see if it’s clean. But there is one thing she says, will never come out completely, “cat pee,” she says. “The smell of cat pee festers in fabrics and leaves a slight stain.” If you choose to sleep with this “special” smelling blanket, you’ll never be the same.

“You just have to train them.” My dad said to my mother with his all knowing, master tone he has. “All pets just need to be told no, a little discipline. Ha I just can’t believe you guys go through this as often as you do.”

Well thank you for the advice dad, but I have a feeling cats can’t be trained, I guess I’ll just have to live with a few accidents here and there, even if they do smell bad.