So, my neighbor used to cat-sit, and we discovered that Lenny liked his expensive shag rug. He liked scooting his ass across it.
Now Lenny went the vet at the time and was deemed to be perfectly healthy (no gland issues, no colon issues, nothing wrong at all), and he did not ever drag his ass on my rugs, or any other rug at my neighbor’s. But every single time he visited the apartment next door, the first thing he would do is scoot his ass across the fancy carpet with an expression of glee. The fancy rug felt good. He would be scolded and then when he thought we weren’t looking he’d trot across for a drive-by scooting or a stealth wipe. Luckily he never stayed at my neighbor’s for longer than a weekend or else I would have had an expensive cleaning bill.
So I just got a new rug. It’s a beige-taupe color. And I got a thick underpad. It is now very squooshy… and apparently it’s as awesome as my neighbor’s rug!
My rug now looks like a tarmac with skid marks everywhere. I’ve only had it a week.
So what is the best cleaner I can get for it? It’s all natural fibers (wool). There’s no urine, cat puke, or any of that, just skid marks. The bastard.
We’ve had good luck with Nature’s Miracle/Pet-tastic’s “Just for Cats” product, but that’s been for hairballs. When our Samantha did the butt-dragging thing – on white carpet, nonetheless – she didn’t leave much in the way of skidmarks, and we got her to the vet ASAP. If there were skidmarks, I think that was the stuff we used, because we had it on hand. We’ve also used Anti-Icky-Poo (world’s worst name, but a good product), but that was for urine. I’d start with those for the skid marks – the former is available at most pet stores (especially the big box ones), but the AIP is only available online, I think, and is pretty expensive.
I think the bigger problem is going to be preventing him from skidding the new rug up all the time! Check with your vet, if you haven’t already – it can mean that he’s having trouble with his anal glands, especially now that he’s doing it regularly.
He has a follow-up appointment (again) coming up anyway. But the first couple of occasions he did this was when he was staying with my neighbor while I was on holiday and it resulted two pointless vet visits. We theorized that it was because he was upset about staying next door. We only figured out that it was rug-specific when Lenny started coming over to Rob’s when we were having video game marathons or BBQs. Lenny is pretty cool as far as chillin’ with the neighbors. His zeal for scooting on the fancy rug was made quite clear.
It was never his ass that was the problem, it was the irresistable rug!
When Lenny and Squiggy inspected this new one, Squiggy started bouncing around like a kid on a trampoline, and Lenny just looked like he found a lifetime supply of Charmin.
I’m going to remove the underpad and see if the lack of squooshy bounce makes a difference in the rug’s appeal.
