Note to Self: Before closing the van door, double check to be sure a "barn cat" has not climbed inside. Sigh. Otherwise, you may open the door one day and be greeted first, by the very strong smell of cat urine, and second, by the sound of meowing.
Thankfully, I wasn't trying to take the whole family somewhere, and I had another car option to use instead. Of course, as soon as I came home I had to clean the 15 passenger van. It wasn't as bad as I first feared. Only one cat pile, right where the driver's foot rests in front of the gas pedal. And only one place that was peed in. Unfortunately, it was the baby's car seat, and it had been peed in multiple times. I'm trying to save the car seat.
I have the car seat cloth cover in the washing machine as we speak, and the car seat frame is drying on the porch where I washed it and sprayed it with the pet odor remover spray. I am hoping that the pet odor remover spray that is soaking into the van's bench seat removes any lingering odor from the pee that soaked through the car seat into the van seat. I also put one of the Arm & Hammer Fridge Odor Absorber boxes in the van. I am VERY thankful right now for my vinyl seats and vinyl floor in the van. No carpets and cloth seats to hold that smell in forever.
Lots of work, lots of hoping and wishing and praying that it smells better later. And it could have been avoided if I hadn't grabbed my babies out of the van (last two kids in it) on Wednesday night and shut the door without looking around. Of course, it's been ages since the cat tried to get in the van so I had no reason to be looking for her. Ugh.
New rule. Rule number one. ALWAYS look for cats before shutting the van door. Sigh.
April E.
