Oh, and I forgot to mention...

[desperance]

One other item on the sheet of paper, how to deal with an allergy to house dust mite: it says to put all the pets soft toys into the freezer for twenty-four hours.

Um, no? We shall have a proper teddy bear's bathtime, with suds'n'all, and then they can hang by their ears on the washing line as they were designed to do, thank you very much...

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

There is a song in there somewhere, but my parody function seems to be not working. (If you get into to the tub today, you're in for a big surprise/When you step into those suds today/You'll never believe your eyes/For every toy that ever their was/Is soaking there today because/Today's the day the teddy bears get their bath-time?)

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

"ears" instead of "eyes" maybe? Doesn't rhyme right, but foreshadows the drying time.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Umm, How about 'bound to see something weird..../believe your ears?

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

I love that icon. Because I have an almost identical bear - when I can root out the camera I s'll post a photo as proof :)

And it's funny you should mention freezing as a way of getting rid of dust mites. Yesterday, my beloved was extolling the virtues of freezing as an excellent way of deodorising leather bike gloves. I drew the line at freezing boot liners or trainers, though.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

There are also antiallergen sprays that you can use. I'm not sure whether they just keep the allergen proteins down or actually denature them.

We use them around this household for carpets, upholstery, drapes and mattresses before and after vacuuming. "Febreeze" makes one. I'm sure others do as well. Don't know, of course, what you've available locally.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

If you get a one of those good vacuum cleaner with an allergen filter, it may also be helpful to vacuum your soft toys. Some people find this less distressing than a wet bath. (Training an adult cat to tolerate being vacuumed is probably more trouble than it's worth, but it can be done if you start with a good-natured kitten.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, Mac seems to be learning not to tolerate being vacuumed. He was completely unfazed by the machine when he moved in, to the point of gazing down with interest when the tube swallowed his tail; but he's spent the intervening time watching Barry run away from it, and that's what he does too now. When he remembers.

[jemck.livejournal.com]

One of our previous cats, Fluff (not our naming) adored being hoovered to the extent of deliberately and persistently lying down in front of the sucking bit (we have always had cylinder type vacuums) until he was done, up to and including the sucking of the tail up the pipe.

This utterly baffled a pal who was helping out with some emergency housework when I was once hospitalised. She kept trying to hoover round him and he kept moving to lie down in her path again.

He was, you will not be surprised to learn from the name, a long-hair. Who was a dedicated outdoor cat and absolutely couldn't be arsed with all this grooming malarkey. Every so often we would spend an entertaining evening cutting felted lumps out of his coat.

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Of course, the point of the 24h freezer session may have been to kill off all those pesky dust mites and their eggs, which may otherwise survive a spin and dunking in the washing machine.

Just sayin'.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Pfui. We are nicely-brought-up English bears; we do not believe in nasties that cannot be safely exterminated by a nice hot bath.