The Couch

During John's single years he bought himself a lovely camel backed sofa.  It was a tone on tone white/ecru. It was quite lovely and suitable for a man living alone.  Knowing that he wouldn't be alone all of the time he purchased an extended cleaning plan, sort of like scotch guard kicked up a notch.  Be forewarned, those plans are only good when the business from whom it is purchased continues to actually be in business.

The couch was maintained and in quite good condition in spite of the cleaning folks no longer operating, until several months ago.  The couch was showing age just as all furniture does when it is used, but was still quite serviceable until Petey decided to make it his personal toilet. 

When Petey started peeing on the couch we tried everything we could think of several times and then tried a few more things.  We used the training pads; we used positive reinforcement when he peed outside; we scolded; we cajoled.  We used pet odor eliminator; we used febreeze; we used oust; we used all three!  We barricaded.  At one point the barriers were so elaborate we could hardly get to the couch.  I'm surprised engineering students didn't come study it.  Nothing, I say, nothing worked.  Petey still peed on the couch.

It didn't matter how much or how often we scrubbed and cleaned the couch, floor, and rug.  It smelled like pee in the living room.  We were embarrassed for people to come over.  There was always an underlying odor of urine.  Forget about laying on the couch to watch TV, at least not without a gas mask.

So last weekend we actually drug the couch outside and scrubbed it with ammonia and sprayed it with the hose.  God helped us by sending rain in the night to further saturate the couch.  After another 24 hours outside detoxing, we decided it was time to bring the couch back inside.

While the couch was outside we scrubbed down the living room, even getting to those pesky cobwebs in the corners.  When the couch was back inside in the living room, it was glorious.  The living room was all clean and shiny and the only scent was the lavender diffuser on the end table.  (Cue the harp music..laaa...)

That lasted overnight.  The next morning when we we walked in to the living room.  We were met with this:

 That isn't a left over water mark from the scrubbing.  It is Petey pee.