I'm so proud of Chase. He's finally figured out a way to get up on my bed ALL BY HIMSELF. He's lived with us for years and for years he has went into my room, whined at the top of his whining abilities, and as soon as everyone came running to see what was the matter-gave a soulful look that only a beagle can. We all knew that meant, "puhlease put me up on the bed, I want to snuggle with a pillow and take a suhnooze." (In my mind, Chase has a very southern accent!) Anyway, a few weeks ago, Chase learned how to jump onto my hope chest that has been forever at the foot of my bed (right where DH can stub his toe while rushing to pack for work) and then onto the bed. I don't know what magical thing happened to put the idea in his head. Absolutely nothing had changed. But miracles happen everyday and this is one of them! No more running at the beck and call of an overly worn out dog-he does work extra hard at begging for treats, dontcha know??
We took off for a few days of camping during my family reunion last week. We were only about 15-20 miles from home. So we got the benefit of peace and quiet and campfires and yada yada but we were able to run home once or twice a day to check on the animals and grab the eggs. Everything went fine until the last day. I ran to the nursing home to pick up my DGMs laundry. And on my way home, I got a phone call from DH. I'm sure he said something intelligent but all I got out of it was: "Chase,...sick,.... mattress,..... yuck" Oh boy.
And so we have embarked on a mattress cleaning journey. The first stop on this trip was out of my control. DH had already discarded the pukey mess (thank you, sir!), threw the bedding in the washer, and sprayed the offending spot with disinfectant spray.
-At this point, can I add a sidenote? A little memory I have of DH and I at the store a few weeks ago? When I said I needed disinfectant spray but wasn't going to pick any up that day because the only scent they had was "linen" and I could not tolerate the smell of "linen?" And DH got miffed because "disinfectant only has to work not smell good?" So we came home with "linen" scent disinfectant?
Now, back to the mattress cleaning story. A couple hours after DH sprayed the spot (which was actually the section of the bed normally covered by my lower torso-so not a small spot by any means) there had been no improvement in the state of smelliness of my mattress. In fact it was worse. DH once again doused the bed with disinfectant giving my bedroom the noxious odor of rotten whatever the dog puked up and "linen." Luckily, the camper was still in camping mode in the driveway so we spent the night there. The next morning, after I sent DH off to work in Minnesota, I covered my mattress in baking soda and took off to run errands in town. And boy did I make those errands last as long as I could. I was in no hurry to get home to the smells that were beginning to take over my house!
But alas, return I must. And I did. Then I spent an hour vacuuming up baking soda. See, Porche (DH's cat) had found baking soda to be a purrfectly good thing to play in. So baking soda was everywhere. And as it turns out, baking soda is one of those "fine particles" that will "quickly clog" my hand held vacuum cleaner. So most of that hour was spent over the trash can, cleaning out the filter. And yet, on a not so bright note- my mattress still stunk. To. High. Heaven.
Next up in my arsenal was a can of foaming carpet refresher that removes pet odors. It was an easy to use, turn it upside down, and spray foam. And that is exactly what I did! I soaked the spot in carpet foam, closed the bedroom door (not sure how much damage Porche could do with foam!) and returned to the camper.
And I'm happy to report that this morning my mattress smells great! And here are my lessons learned from this little "trip":
1. Never get bullied into buying stinky disinfectant spray
2. You can't have too much carpet freshener-even if you're like me and don't have carpet!
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