Monday, March 31, 2008

As If My House Doesn't Stink Enough Already . . .

Mr. Lucky has acquired yet another dog, a chocolate beagle. Unlike our other two beagles, this one has a brown nose.

When I said I wanted more chocolate, this wasn’t exactly what I meant.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t like dogs. I do. In fact, last Friday night we watched
I Am Legend with Will Smith, and for me, the most heartbreaking scene in that movie—the one that nearly drew tears from my eyes—was canine-related.

I just don’t like having to do extra housework to keep down the odor. Unless you’re one of those clean freaks (pardon the redundancy), who amongst you cannot appreciate my dilemma?

Mr. Lucky proposed we use potpourri to keep down the odor. The words were barely out of his mouth when I started having visions of Baby Bear dumping baskets of potpourri and scattering trails of it all through the house.

After I vetoed that idea, he suggested scented candles. NO WAY! I will not have open flames of any kind in the house because of—who else? Baby Bear.

Mr. Lucky argued that scented candles didn’t have to be lit to be effective. I countered they had to come with wicks for a reason.

We used to have “plug-in” deodorizers, until Bear figured out how to unplug them.

In the end, we went shopping in search of a compromise, and decided to try some jars of “odor absorbing gel.”

Our new chocolate beagle is a good dog who's bonded well with the other two beagles. Mr. Lucky is happy, and I’d rather have a happy husband than not. He says he likes having three dogs. “There’s just something about the number three,” he said. “We had three kids, now we have three dogs.”

Methinks I'd better keep my mouth shut, lest he gets some harebrained notion about having three wives.

6 comments:

Phyllis J. Towzey said...

So funny! He doesn't need 3 wives -- YOU do the work of 3 wives.

Re dog odor, there's this powdery stuff my husband sprinkles on the carpets before he vacuumes (yes! a man who vacuums) -- I'll check tonight and see what it is. I think it's specifically for pet odors. Looks like talcum powder.

Congrats to Mr. Lucky on the new pup -- now tell him to go our and get you some REAL chocolate -- but since chocolate can be harmful to dogs, perhaps you'd better eat it all up really quick.

Karen Lingefelt said...

Thanks, Phyllis. I do have the Arm & Hammer "pet odor powder" that I sprinkle on the carpet. It's also supposed to pick up dog hair.

Karen Lingefelt said...

Oh, and another thing, Phyllis (I found this out only after making the last comment)--CONGRATULATIONS ON FINISHING YOUR BOOK!!!

Vicki said...

Congrats on the new dog. What's his/her name?

Maybe you can get one of those things that attaches to the wall and every so often releases air freshner into the air.

Phyllis J. Towzey said...

Thanks, Karen. :)

Yes, it was the Arm & Hammer stuff.

I'll be watching your blog for suggestions from others because, frankly, despite the A&H, my own house tends to smell like dog.

I've found that baking apple pies with lots of cinnamon and nutmet takes care of the problem nicely, but isn't very good for my diet.

Karen Lingefelt said...

Thanks, Phyllis! I love the baked apple pie idea (with vanilla ice cream), and I'll bet my husband would too!

Vicki: The dog's name is Bart. Mr. Lucky thought that was a "sign" since our other two dogs have names that can be linked in some way to "The Simpsons", which was one of our daughter's favorite TV shows (I should probably blog about that someday, because that show helped pull her out of her autistic shell).