It was a peaceful morning. Now that we are fairly empty-nesters most mornings are. I say fairly empty because, though there are no children in the house some of them are right across the street and we have a dog, Phoebe, and a kitten, Charlie Cat. Charlie Cat is not the name we gave him, but our 3 year old grandson came up with this and it stuck. Fortunately, Charlie Cat is very cute because…

As I was saying, it was a peaceful morning and I was sitting in my chair drinking my coffee, reading my book with Charlie in my lap, and wondering; not about my day, not even about what I was going to be eating that day; I was wondering what exactly I was smelling, because whatever it was, it wasn’t good. I sniffed around and discovered the source, Charlie’s cat box. It’s a pretty cat box, one that looks like furniture so nobody really knows what’s in there, unless it is befouled. When I opened the doors, I was greeted with said befoulment.

My morning had new purpose, not one of quiet repose with my coffee and my book, much as I wanted that. This morning was one of war. A battle to clean the befouled, putrefied, “liquid” in the box that somehow did not make it into the litter, a bigger battle to not toss my coffee in the process, and the constant battle for a good attitude when you haven’t finished your coffee and it’s only 4:00 am. And so I thought about my predicament.

I was grateful that the stink and it’s source was inside the box and not on my floor. Then I remembered that I had just bought a pair of new rubber gloves and opening new things is always fun, so that was a plus! Attitude in check, I got started. My first step was to gather all I would need, put on my new rubber gloves, and go to war. I had plastic bags, paper towels, a bucket of hot water and disinfecting wipes. As I prepared to don my new gloves, I realized that my right hand glove was fine and so was the other right hand glove. Wait. What? I had TWO right hand gloves. So, fortunately, I am in fact, right-handed and quite literally, singlehandedly got to work.

The clean up was actually not that bad. I did not toss my coffee. The befoulment was neatly packaged in multiple plastic bags with everything that had touched it. My house smelled good before my husband woke up. I cleaned the two right-handed gloves and put them back in their bag for a return. And then I had the funniest thought! I rarely watched “Friends” but my daughter would often share funny parts of episodes with me. My favorite was Phoebe singing “Smelly Cat.” Our dog is Phoebe, our cat is Smelly…Get it! If not, it’s really not that big a deal!