I am ashamed of myself when I hear of someone so well organized! What I do is: first I come out half asleep in the morning on my way to the coffee machine and let both nail-clicking dogs outside, and as I get close to the kitchen I step on some type of gooey mess and slide about a foot before I get my balance -- turning on the lights and squinting, and even without my glasses I can usually identify it as either throw-up, hairball -- or WORSE! If it is a small amount it is usually from a cat - but larger pools of slippery slime would indicate the dog got into the cat food and threw up a whole bag of it in the hallway. Now I am distraught (euphemism for ANGRY) because obviously one of the kids took down the dog barrier during the night when they raided the refrigerator, and the dogs have been wandering around looking for opportunistic possibilities for hours (there are probably other "accidents"). The cats are all sedately sitting on the counter under the kitchen window watching me -- I know they are secretly laughing! Cats do that all the time. Now, to find the appropriate sponge, paper towels or rags! Paper towels are easiest, so I reach for the roll - but alas the boys have taken it to their bedroom to wipe off the TV screens or deposit apple cores into an entire paper towel roll!
OK, so get some rags from the laundry room. I walk barefoot (feet still wet) over the grains of litter that the Persian cat has falling off of him wherever he goes (I think he is a manufacturer of cat litter). Yuck! It is stuck between my toes. Finally I go back and wipe up the mess, wipe off my feet and dispose of the rags. Oh - a cleaning agent? Ah - Sure! H2O -- that will work.
Now I am completely awake and it is 6:00 a.m. The boys get up and are slamming doors and flushing toilets and the dogs are back at the slider whining and wanting back inside because it is raining and cold and they really just want to be cats and use the litter box! Their paws are covered in mud - but "Oh Heck" - why should that stop them?
