It’s time for Spring Cleaning. And, Cat Faeries and Anti Icky Poo want to help you, and make it easier! The wildly popular Anti Icky Poo isn’t just for cleaning up kitty accidents. AIP’s special enzymes and friendly bacteria also clean up any and every organic mess. As the label says, it “will digest any malodorous decay.” (Your brother-in-law doesn’t count.)

Here are some unique and different tips from Cat Faeries on how to use Anti Icky Poo products – you may be surprised! (Remember, test fine fabrics for colorfastness or know that they are water safe before using Anti Icky Poo.)

1. If you dare… take a close look at your hand powered can opener. There may be that persistent build up of crud on the blades and gears that seems to resist repeated trips through the dishwasher. Unscented AIP (Anti Icky Poo) to the rescue! Give it a heavy spraying of Unscented AIP and let it sit over night while the enzymes do their thing. Now the crud should be much easier to wash off. If some still resists, try another application and use a toothpick or brush to loosen the persistent icky bits.
2. Recently we discovered how some yucky sticky stuff had accumulated on the rubber seal on our front loading washing machine. And how much sticky lint like stuff had migrated underneath the seal. Rated H for Horrifying!Here’s what we did and you can too. Use a flash light so you can really see where the crud is. Spray Unscented AIP under the fold of the seal and on the part of the rubber seal that’s exposed. Scrub a bit, then apply more Anti Icky Poo and let it stay wet. Keep the door open so air circulates. Repeat the spraying two or three more times during the course of half a day. Do one final spraying and use a rag to remove any crud that AIP did not eat, then wipe dry. Leave the door open for a while to air out.
3. Give cat boxes a nice soak to remove odors from the box itself. Dump the old litter. Wash the litter box with hot water and dish soap, and then pat dry. Add one quarter to one half cup of AIP and about three inches of warm water. Let soak for 30 minutes. Rinse, dry, and add fresh litter. Your cat is thanking you already.
4. Smokers can use unscented Anti Icky Poo on their clothes to get rid of that persistent smoke smell – works so well it will fool people into thinking the smoker quit a long time ago.
5. How many times did you pass on a garage sale treasure because it was covered in yellow/brown tar & nicotine from cigarettes? No need to pass up that fabulous find when you’ve got Anti Icky Poo at home to melt years of ick away.
6. Refrigerator drawers or shelves can be really hard to clean if you’ve accidentally created a “science project.” You may be afraid to tackle it but the enzymes in Unscented Anti Icky Poo are happy to. Put the science project in the compost. Take the drawer or shelf out, do an AIP spray, let it sit for a while, then clean and put back in the fridge.
7. One quarter to one half cup of Anti Icky Poo down your drains every week will keep the flow flowing. The enzymes love to eat up soap scum and grease. They can’t eat hair but if you keep drains free of the sticky stuff that bonds the hair into a mess, then it will more easily just flow down the drain.
8. Here’s a trick that professional carpet cleaners use:
   You know how some fabrics “wick” away moisture from your body (think of your best workout wear wicking away perspiration). This tip can actually wick cat urine or other fluid “up” and “out” of fabric/carpet. Saturate a stain with Anti Icky Poo, then apply some AIP Stain Remover
   over that. Now, put a white cotton rag or two on top of it. And on top of the rag place a heavy object. The cloth with the weight on top of it will cause the stain material to wick upward and into the rag. Sounds like a magic trick! Abra cadabra!
9. If you have a cloth covered recliner like we do, you know that hair oils can build up on the headrest. Over time, that can get kind of “odiferous” (smelly). And if you can’t remove the headrest for a wash, how do you clean it? We used Anti Icky Poo and it worked! Two cycles of spray applications and the odor disappeared.
10. We’ve saved the best story for last. Recently one of our little old lady cats had some diarrhea and she of course decided to deposit it in the worst place – on an upholstered foot rest. It was the consistency of pudding and we couldn’t get all of it off. The rest was becoming one with the fabric and penetrating fast! Absolutely horrifying and we were in a huge panic! We grabbed a quart of Anti Icky Poo Unscented and misted heavily several times over the course of two hours. Then we got busy packing your orders and frankly, forgot about it. A few days later we discovered that every trace of cat poop was GONE! The AIP had eaten, yes, eaten every particle of the poopy smoosh and its smell! And with zero harm to the fabric. For “Justin Case” we misted a few more times to make sure it was truly gone! We still cannot stop talking about this miracle!

Visit the Cat Faeries Urine Cleanup page to see all the Anti Icky Poo products and special product bundles.

Prevention: Once a month pour 1/4 – 1/2 cup of Anti Icky Poo down each drain. AIP will happily clear out grease and soap scum.

Slow running drain: Start with 1/2 cup. After a few hours run some water to clear away remaining waste. You may need to do several applications.

Completely backed up drain: Anti Icky Poo probably won’t work 100% as it can’t eat through hair, but depending on what’s down there, it’s worth trying 1/2 cup before calling the plumber.

Recently we learned something fascinating: human emotional tears contain Serotonin which is a natural anti-depressant. So, when something very sad happens to you, like the passing of your cat or another loved one, don’t hold back the tears, let them flow. Your grief or sorrow will ease; peace and understanding will come.

Here we excerpt a paragraph about human tears and Serotonin from the book “The Blessing of Tears,” by Julie Sheldon.

“In 1994 the findings of a study of the chemical composition of different types of tears was published ( X.D. Martin and M.C. Brennan “Serotonin in human tears” European Journal of Ophthalmology 4(3), 159-69. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. Recently developed antidepressant drugs such as Prozac aim to increase the amount of Serotonin in the brain. The study compared the amount of reflex tears and emotional tears, and relatively huge amounts of Serotonin was found in emotional tears. This happens because when emotion is experienced, the hypothalamus in the brain releases several neurotransmitters, including serotonin. In emotional tears, Serotonin is the messenger to boost the volume of production of tears from the lachrymal sac.”

If you want to learn more you can read the book online at Google Books, or buy it through links on that page. You can also find out more via a Google search for serotonin in human tears.

Did the state kill my cat?

Fire-retardant chemicals required by California in furniture may be poisoning us.
By Arlene Blum PhD

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-blum17-2008oct17,0,819903.story

From the Los Angeles Times Opinion  October 17, 2008

My beloved cat, Midnight, died a few days ago — possibly because of toxic chemicals in my furniture. In two years with hyperthyroid disease, Midnight went from a plump 14 pounds to a skeletal five. A year ago, a veterinary epidemiologist found that Midnight’s blood contained among the highest levels of  toxic PBDEs documented in animal research. That’s when I learned that the chemicals in my cat came from my couch. And that my furniture is uniquely toxic because I live in California.

Since the 1980s, fire-retardant chemicals such as PBDEs have been added to furniture to meet a California-only requirement that the foam inside resist a 12-second exposure to an open flame. The chemicals evaporate from the foam, settle in dust and coat walls with a thin film. Cats that groom themselves and toddlers who crawl in dust show especially high levels of PBDEs, but everyone with this chemically treated furniture gets some exposure.

In dozens of animal studies, these fire retardants also have been shown to harm reproduction and scramble brain development. Studies are underway to determine if PBDEs are contributing to increases in autism, hyperactivity, birth defects, infertility, diabetes and obesity in people.

On average, dust in California homes contains 10 times the PBDEs found in dust from other states and 200 times the amount in houses in Europe, according to a new study from the Silent Spring Institute. Worse, Californians have twice the level of this fire retardant in their blood as do people in other states. A recent research report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group showed that American toddlers have, on average, a level of fire retardant in their bodies that is three times higher than that found in their mothers.

Every evening for the last year, I put a needle into Midnight’s scruff to give her fluids to keep her alive. As I watched the slow drip of the liquid, I wondered whether the PBDEs in my cat caused her disease. The fire retardant is known to cause thyroid problems in rats, mice, kestrels and frogs. The EPA suspected a link after its 2007 study of cats found substantially higher levels of PBDEs in the ones with hyperthyroidism. In 1980, when PBDEs were first added to furniture, hyperthyroid disease in cats hardly existed, according to my veterinarian. Now it is an epidemic in California.

Were Midnight and my family safer from fires because of the toxic chemicals in our couch? Probably not. Furniture fabric in California is not required to be fire resistant. In a fire, fabric burns long enough to ignite even treated foam.

Happily, the death rate from house fires has gone down considerably in California since 1980. But it’s dropped a similar amount or more in states that don’t require retardants in their furniture. A decrease in smoking, more smoke detectors and better enforcement of fire safety standards are credited with this large decrease in fire deaths.

San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Mark Leno’s AB 706, a bill that sought to remove toxic fire retardants from California furniture and maintain fire safety, was just voted down by the state Senate. Manufacturers of fire retardants — Chemtura Corp., Albemarle Corp. and Israel Chemicals Ltd. — spent millions on lobbying to stop it.

Instead, more Californians may soon be sleeping in a cocoon of chemicals. Technical Bulletin 604, a proposed state regulation requiring comforters, mattress pads and pillows to resist an open flame, is expected to be enacted soon by the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation. Yet the state has not asked for any information on the health or environmental effects of the chemicals likely to be used.

As I stroked Midnight before she died, I thought about the canary in the coal mine warning of lethal gases. Perhaps the story of Midnight’s death can help protect us all from unneeded toxic fire retardants in our homes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the authority and responsibility to protect our health. He should instruct the bureau to stop California from being the only state requiring flame-retardant bed coverings, pillows and furniture. It’s too late for Midnight, but hopefully our governor will withstand chemical industry pressure and act to protect our cats and our children from unneeded toxic chemicals in our homes.

Arlene Blum PhD is executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry

Arlene Blum, PhD
arlene@arleneblum.com
Telephone: 510 644-3164  Mobile: 510 919-6363
Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute
Web: www.greensciencepolicy.org, www.arleneblum.com
Arlene Blum
Phone:  510 644-3164
Fax: 510 644-2164
Cell: 510 919-6363
E-Mail:  arlene@arleneblum.com
Web site: www.arleneblum.com

The number one trigger is the presence of outside cats who come up to the house.  Sensitive or overly territorial indoor cats spray or pee outside the box as an attempt to protect their home from the intruders.  Our indoor cats see, hear, and SMELL the urine of outdoor cats.  Many of those uninvited cats are spraying your front door on the outside!  This causes the indoor cat to retaliate.

Let’s take this one step further – literally – we are going to talk about your shoes!

When we walk our city streets we step on all sort of gross things. We’ll spare you the the tummy turning examples, but you can certainly imagine what you’ve walked on. Ths would include cat urine or flakes of feces. YUCK!

If you wear those same shoes in the house you are bringing the those threatening scents into the house, and spreading it everywhere you walk.

Here’s something you can do for the sanity of your cats, and to keep your home sparkling clean and free of disease – regularly clean the soles of your shoes.

Its easy! A basin of soapy water and an old tooth brush, plus a towel for drying is all you need. For really soiled shoes soak them in a 1/8 to 1/4 inch of soapy water to loosen the crud, then finish with your old toothbrush.

You might have all household members wear only slippers in the house, and keep shoes by the front door like the Japanese do. Its sanitary, its rather elegant, and its possibly going to solve your cat’s spraying problem.

Here’s a bit of fun trivia – Diana Vreeland to legendary editor of Vogue magazine had her maid clean the soles of her shoes. She was known to admonish Vogue staff members for wearing shoes with unwashed soles to the office!

If you see your cats staring at heater vents or closet doors, or if you see them going in and out of closets more often than usual betcha 10 catnip cupcakes that you’ve got mice either setting up residence or using your home as a highway from point A to point B. You could even have a rat or two.

A mouse in the house can cause

* sudden and unexplained fighting among cats.

* sudden and unexplained urinating or spraying near closets or heater vents by your cats.

* health worries of contracting the Hanta Virus from rodent droppings

There are many traps for mice available. We like the idea of “trap and release” using a humane trap – a great brand is Havahart. A good supplier of cat goods should have them, sometimes they’ll loan you one. For trapping rats . . .well, its tough and probably not safe to be so kind hearted – this is up to you. There’s a trap for rats which quickly and humanely electricutes them called The Rat Zapper.

Here’s a bait recipe that a friend who is a professional exterminator gave us for trapping rats. Rats are hip to the peanut butter thing so if that’s failed you in the past its because rats are very smart and evolve! (probably faster than some humans, but that’s another blog posting!)

Take a cookie and put a glob of peanut butter on it – think of the peanut butter as the glue which will hold the next two ingriedents: 1 macadamia nut and 1 small piece of black licorice. Rats may now be ho hum about peanut butter but the darlings cannot resist a mac nut or a piece of black licorice, so why not use both together! Insert this gourmet bait in the trap and voila, you’ve got em!

Warm wishes to all!