Oh Crap, part one
or Never Underestimate the frailty of garbage bags.
One of my "chores" is cleaning the cat boxes. Normally this, while an unpleasant chore, doesn't rate high on the suck scale. But Klondike and Klia are on a special diet that means they drink like camels and pee like racehorses. I have to use puppy training pads to line the box under the plastic liner since the pee goes through the plastic (with the help of their claws). Klondike does NOT like clumping litter so I have to use traditional - which is good because clumping litter didn't stand a chance. And if I don't do it every 3 days, I am told that the boxes need changing in that "subtle" kitty way.
So I had just changed the litter and put the kukky stuff in a garbage bag. It didn't feel too heavy (clue 1) and I thought (clue 2) that one bag would hold it all (clue 3). Halfway down the stairs (the boxes are in BF's bedroom) the bag I was carrying broke. This wasn't a slow oooohhhhhh nnnnnooooooooo tear that gives you ample time to contemplate the disaster that is about to happen because you are so totally unable to stop it. This was a sharp SNAP and all I was holding in my hand was a plastic knot. Tumbling end over end down the stairs was the sodden, ikky, gross, (insert adjective here), mess I had just removed from the cat boxes.
You know how people say, "Hypothetically, what would you do in such-and-such a situation?"
Alex, I'll take "Stare dumbly awestruck and hope I'm dreaming" for $200.
BF came over and shared the stupid stare with me for what felt like much longer than it was. We were both wondering how the B133p we were going to clean it up so that it wouldn't be the new pee place.
While being really gross and smelly, the cleanup was easier than we thought it would be. I had bought one of those Sweepa brooms at a home show. They "said" how great it would work on carpeting and so it was time to see how badly the spiel was.
Fortunately for me, it was another spiel that lived up to its name (I've been lucky so far with home show stuff). Getting down the stairs without crushing the guk into the carpet was DIFFICULT but getting it swept up was relatively easy. The broom lived up to the hype. I threw out a bunch of fabric that was piled at the foot of the stairs (and had caught quite a bit of poo) but once I was done, the carpet looked better than before.
So far [knock wood] the cats haven't peed in the disaster area. I've stayed on top of litter box cleaning and have learned my lesson - NEVER use one bag to carry dirty litter!! (it took 4 bags for the cleanup)