by Cathy Davis
I was visiting with a colleague in his office in Bangor the other day and sleeping quietly in one corner was his beautiful dog. She never even lifted an eye, just snoozed away, warm and comfortable and very content. This gentleman takes his companion and friend with him everywhere he goes, meetings, vacations, hunting and fishing, she is always by his side.
I brought my dog Scruffy with me to work this morning too. Not literally, but given the below zero temperatures and the zero percent humidity, this is the perfect recipe for static cling. I got ready for work this morning, put on a brand new, never worn, only from the store to my closet, never touched by human hands or animal, other than from factory to store pants, and there he was, Scruffy, or at least 50 percent of him, on my pant legs.
First of all, I am amazed that a dog can shed so much and not be bald. Second, this is a reminder to call my favorite groomer Jenna Carr to come give Scruffy a much-needed bath and clip. And third, I never saw so much hair gravitate to a pair of pants so fast in my entire life. Of course this is the kind of person I am, “Scruffy,” I say, “go in the other room” – like it’s his fault I have hair on my pants.
Of course he looks at me with these big hurt eyes and then I tell him I know it’s not his fault and all is going to be fine, but I’m still wearing a dog on my legs and my trusty sticky roller is at the office, and so I’m trying to figure out how to remove the five pounds of dog hair before I even leave the house.
So after 53 years of pet ownership, I decide to do a little research to figure out if there are any ways to at least reduce the poundage of this frequent fur. This is what I learned:
• Brush your pets to remove loose hairs (I do this every night and every night I fill the trash bag with hair, again I ask you, why is my dog not bald? And why can’t I grow a thick mane of hair that fast?)
• Clean the washing machine – now this one has me intrigued – run an empty wash cycle and then take a wet cloth and wipe down the entire machine and get this, run a lint roller over your clothes before you put them in the washer. Now this is a new concept to me because I consider the washer/dryer my pet hair removal resource center. If you look at your lint trap, is it not full of pet hair? So case closed right, the process removes hair. Well, evidently if you remove hair before you put things in the washer you get much better results! Who would have guessed?
• Use white vinegar in the washer — this reduces static cling!
• I love this one — do not fold clothes on your bed or any piece of furniture that is occupied by a pet – OK, this is like kindergarten advice, but worth passing along.
• This is my favorite piece of advice I found on the Internet (don’t you love the Internet?) – it says buy clothes the color of your dog. If you have a white dog wear white pants, black dog – black pants. Seriously?
• Now this one is fun: inflate a balloon and rub it across the surface that has pet hair on it. The static on the balloon’s surface is worse than your own static and will attract the hair, which you can then rinse off and use the balloon again! I’m going to get a bag of balloons and call the grandchildren. I see a party in our future.
• Or you can do what I used to do, and might do again in the future. Come to work in jeans, keep my good clothes at the office (no dogs here) and change when I get to work.
You might ask, is it worth it, all this work to have an animal? Yep, I guarantee it. You might think, “all you need to do is keep your house clean and it’s not an issue,” – and you, my friend are obviously not an animal owner. I can vacuum at 8 a.m. and at 8:10 a.m. there is a dogfur bunny chasing me down the hall.
If you are warmed by the love of a pet and a little hair here and there doesn’t bother you one bit, you might consider adopting a friend for your Rover or Fluffy. My Scruffy loves playing with our kitties Holly, Ellie and Boo. He would be lonely without them. Maybe your dog would like a kitty pal. There is no truth to the rumor that dogs eat cats! You just need to make the right “match” for it to work.
The shelter has some absolutely beautiful animals available for adoption right now including young and adult cats, bunnies and dogs. Soon there will be puppies. Please friend Houlton Humane Society on Facebook for a look at the puppies coming in soon and thank you for your continued support!
