Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Cat pee cleats

I swear these things only happen at our house and after last night I have to seriously wonder if we're on Candid Camera. The hubby and I were trying to watch TV in the family room, but we were literally gagging on the smell of ammonia.  It smelled like a herd of cats escaped from the crazy, hoarder neighbors next door and marked their territory all over our front room.   Here's the problem though….we don't have a cat!

My husband was convinced that the kids must've let a stray cat into our house while we weren't looking (with our kids I suppose that's slightly possible), and it immediately ran around the front room pissing all over everything to mark their territory, and then the kids snuck it back outside before we discovered it (not very likely if you ask me).

I'll admit I too was intrigued as to why we were gagging on cat pee fumes when we don't even own a cat.  The previous owners of our house did have cats, but we've lived here a while and haven't smelled cat pee except for occasional faint whiffs here or there.  However, this smell was like someone was holding your face down in a bucket of cat urine.  It was up your nostrils, throat burning, I think i'm going to barf because I can taste cat pee on my tongue kind of a smell.  I was sick to my stomach and didn't feel good. My head hurt, the room was spinning a little and my hubby and I were literally on our hands and knees crawling around on the ground smelling everything.  I'll admit….I even smelled myself a couple of times. Hey, it's a stretch, but I was desperate to find the source.

On the ground next to the front door sat two pairs of dirty, gross, soccer cleats.  On Monday, the girls had practice in the pouring rain.  The cleats were wet, and muddy, but we figured they would dry off.  What we didn't realize, is they were also covered in cat pee from the field (I didn't realize soccer fields also doubled as a toilet for the neighborhood cats).  My hubby stuck his nose into my 13 y/o daughter's cleat, and literally jumped about 3 feet back.  Then he yelled out, "OH MY GOD. I found the smell."   I don't know why I couldn't just take his word for it, but of course I had to stick my nose into the cleat as well.  I damn near vomited. It was bad.

I have washed these stupid cleats 3 times now.  I've hosed them down with vinegar, detergent, soap, etc. They still freaking stink!  Even the neighborhood squirrels cleared the yard when I set those puppies out on the back patio last night.  So now the big question is, do I buy new cleats even though soccer season is over in a couple of weeks, or do I hold my breath and tell my girls to suck it up and put on their cat pee cleats?   This is reason number 10, 451 as to why i'm not a soccer mom.  Cat pee cleats! Seriously?!

22 comments:

  1. Oh my word, I know the smell. We have four soccer players, and the cleats, not to mention shin guards stink to high heaven. I'm cheap, so I would totally make them wear the stinky cleats. Here's the best tip I've ever gotten: If shoes get wet, stuff them full of newspaper. It sucks all of the moisture right on out of them. The next morning, throw the paper out and find nice, dry, less stinky shoes. Good luck!

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  2. Oh man - a story you seriously just can't make up! that sucks! HATE that smell! I'd stick 'em on the back porch and make them wear them til the end

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    1. Hahaha! I wish I was making it up! The cleats have been resigned to the back porch. The second we put them in the house, it starts to stink like cat pee…sigh.

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  3. Argh, I hate the smell of cat pee!

    Soak them in a bit of white vinegar or lemon juice; that usually cuts the smell.

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    1. Thanks :) Unfortunately the vinegar did nothing on these puppies! I swear they are BAD! The vinegar did work on my youngest daughter's as her cleats weren't as bad, but my older daughter's are pretty much ruined. They are going in the garbage after this season.

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  4. I don't know girl. If it were me, I would suck it up and buy new cleats or leave the shits outside. BTW you never disappoint ;-) (winking smile as I'm not good w/emoticons)

    Jae Mac, I'm Just Sayin'...(Damn!)

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    1. LOL! Thanks :) The cleats are outside and i'm going to try and grin and bear it until the end as the season is almost over. They are going in the trash as soon as the season is over though.

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  5. Your only option is to set them on fire and tell the kids to take an art class.

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    1. Hahaha! I love it! Oh and art class would be awesome! If I never have to sit through a soccer season again, i'd be a happy momma!

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  6. Don't burn them. You'll just smell burnt cat piss. You should find a dumpster somewhere and throw them in there. Eventually, someone will think there's a dead cat in there and throw it out, right? Hilarious story. My daughter's socks have been known to smell strange after preschool. Can't wait for soccer...

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    1. Yep, i'm waiting for one of the neighbors to ask us what that stench is coming from our backyard, lol! Our neighbors already hate us because we are the only family with kids (and we have 5 so we're extra noisy).

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  7. I would buy a couple gallons of vinegar, and soak them bitches for a while. Like in a five gallon bucket. You could also rip out the insoles and put in odor eaters...

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    1. I seriously thought of the odor eaters! The insole on my 13 y/o's cleats seem to be where the smell is the worst. I need to buy some tonight before her game tomorrow. No way am I driving her to her game smelling those cleats in the car! BARF!

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  8. LOL your description gave such a visual. *New Follower* I feel your pain. If you have a Petsmart or Petco near I'm sure they have a pet urine neutralizer. I know they have them for carpet shampooers.

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    1. Thanks Summer :) Believe it or not I honestly haven't seen a big pet store near us but i'll check Walmart or Target.

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  9. Hahah! Newest follower from the hop. Hope to see you at Me + the Moon sometime!

    ♥Nicole @ http://meandthem00n.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you Nicole :) Will check out your blog soon!

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  10. Not going to lie you had me rolling! Cat pee is a tricky one to get rid of but you might want to get some of the urine be gone from the pet store to spray all over them that might just do the trick. Especially since the soccer field is their bathroom you might need more of it, hope it works out!

    Found you threw the Friendly Friday hop

    Ashley
    Beauty Flawed

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    1. Cat pee is the worst and i'm glad I made you laugh :) Oh and thank you for linking up with us at the Friendly Friday!

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  11. guess what, it's not cat pee. Unfortunately synthetic cleats seem to have this smell. My sons are killing me as we speak. I googled it and found all sorts of interesting things. Not cat pee, just synthetics,NASTY ones at that. I will try the newspaper, hopefully that works. In the meantime, i'm hoping Addidas emails me back with better advice.

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  12. I know this is a very old subject but I just had to comment....my son plays soccer on turf no cats around and no cat pee! It truly has something to do with the soccer cleats, getting wet and not drying out. I too thought for sure we had cat pee in the house and in my car and it took a long time to realize it was his cleats! I cannot find anything that works yet. Good luck to all of us with soccer kids.

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