1 Comment

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  ChimneyGoat

  December 8, 2023 at 2:10 pm Reply

  For additional info, there was one time one of my cats peed on the floor. It was pretty much right after I had moved there, so two years ago. I was at home, noticed it immidiately, and cleaned it off and cleaned the spot with cleaner from a pet store, meant to neutralize pet urine so even animals can’t smell it anymore so they wouldn’t pee on the same spot again. I checked the spot multiple times a day after that, and after a good couble of weeks put a carpet on that spot (it was a corner right next to the back door).

  That was the only time there was pee on the floor. When the landlord called, I genuinely did not remember that incident from two years ago since the spot was fine. There wasn’t even any roughness on the flooring since I cleaned it quickly.

  The landlord tried to say that I just wouldn’t have smelled pee on the floor since I lived with cats. Any cat owner knows that that’s not true. I can smell when the cats go pee on their litter boxes before they cover it up, of course I could smell if they had peed on the floor. At the time I also had a dog, so I wasn’t even away from home for more than 8-9 hours at a time. There’s no way that cat pee would somehow dry up in that time so completely I would not notice any smell or marks on the floor. Moreover, I’ve had friends over while I lived there. No one noticed the smell of pee. The landlord himself came there a few times, lastly a week before I moved out with possible new tenants. Neither the landlord or the people with him reported any smell to me.

  Another pee-incident, though not even on the floor, was when I took two of my cats to the vet before the move. One of them peed on the carrier on our way back. The carrier is thick plastic, and the bottom has tall edges. If the cat pee had gotten outside the carrier, it would have been on the seats of my car. Thus, my car would smell too. And I felt around the carrier when I picked it up from the car to make sure there was no pee outside of the carrier. I took the carrier to the “mud room” (a small room right inside the front door, common in Finland). I grabbed towels, a small tub/dish thingy and pet shampoo. I carried the whole carrier carefully in the bathroom. Went back to make sure there was not pee anywhere on the way. I washed the cat, the carrier, the floors and walls of the bathroom and myself. Everything but the cat and myself I washed with the pee-cleaner. Nothing smeller after that, but the mud room did have a slight smell even though no pee was on there. The mud room only has cement floor, with a removable rug on top. I had to keep the door there closed since one of my cats eats through shoelaces.

  My neighbour helped me move, and she told me she didn’t smell any pee in the apartment. A day after that my parents came to help with the heavy stuff. They did say that they smelled a faint smell in the mud room, but nowhere else. Two days after that I moved last of my stuff and cleaned. The front door and mud room doors were open for hours on both days. I didn’t smell anything in the mudroom after that. I don’t know if the smell somehow got on the mudroom carpet even without pee touching it, but if it did all you would need to do would be to throw away that carpet and get a new one for like 10Ôé¼.

  Also the landlord knows that there’s mold in that whole house. One of the bathrooms were being renovated while I moved out. The friendly neighbour’s bathroom has visible black mold, and she told me that her bathroom smells like cat pee because of the mold, especially after she takes a shower. She also told me that she gets respiratory symptoms if she forgets the bathroom door open for even a few hours. The landlord gave her some sort of electric air conditioning device for the bathroom, but refused to renovate before she moves away. My bathroom also has visible black mold, but it’s hidden behind a pipe. I noticed it only a few weeks before moving on accident (I was washing tiny pieces on the bathroom floor with a headlamp on). It couldn’t be washed away so I assume it’s mold. I have pictures of it.

  I have been sick since last year. I first thought they were symptoms lefover from the ‘rona. But they persisted, and were allergy-like symptoms, like respiratory symptoms, some flu-like, tiredness and the like. I have been seen by a doctor multiple times, and had been in extensive blood tests. There was some talk about mold, but I was told that they can’t see if my symptoms are from that. I would have basically needed to stay away from that apartment for a while to see if anything changes, but couldn’t do it because of my pets.

  A month ago I had to make the decision to rehome my dog. I hadn’t been able to give him the excercise he needed because I couldn’t walk as much anymore. He had started barking when I wasn’t at home, and though he wasn’t destructive he was clearly stressed. And I was stressed, I was sick, didn’t know what it was, couldn’t go to school or work, couldn’t even walk my dog. Of course he wasn’t feeling well either.

  He was a rescue, and the amazing lady who had fostered him for a year before I adopted him said that she was very fond of him and will gladly keep him herself. He now lives with her, on a large property in the countryside with six other dogs, four of whitch he knew from three years ago. From her updates he seems perfectly happy, which I’m very glad for.

  I have lived in my new apartment for about two weeks now, and I am feeling a lot better. Of course the symptoms won’t go away immidiately, and all of my furniture and clothes probably have mold residue or something on them. I would need to buy a new washing machine to try to wash what I can. I got a change to wash some when I visited my parents last weekend. I hadn’t though about it too much, but my clothes used to have kind of a pungent smell to them even after washing. That wasn’t on the clothes I washed at my parents’ place. The washing machine in the last apartment was there already when I moved, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something in there as well.

  As for my sadly now former dog, I had to move to a densely populated area and to a bit smaller apartment. Even when I now feel a bit better, I couldn’t have taken him with me. The foster – his new owner – agreed. Especially since he had already started to bark when I wasn’t at home. He has never lived in a place like this before. It would have added to the stress for both of us.

  Also adding that I’ve never had any problems regarding to my cats in previous apartments. I had two of my older cats when I moved from home. Year two of living in that apartment I got a kitten, and year three another kitten. I moved away after living in there for those three years, and there was no complaints. While on the next apartment I got my dog, lived there for a year, and got no complaints. They even told me that the apartment was in a great condition. So I have no history of any damages or anything as a tenant.