The Other Occupants: How Pets Affect Our Homes
“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil orjealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoonis to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.” –Milan Kundera
I’m a dog person. Meow, I don’t dislike cats; I just have anempathy with dogs that I don’t with their feline compatriots.
Dogs fare well and want to help.
One February when I was a kid, we got a call from mygrandfather when he and my grandmother lived outside Warrenton. Heavy rain andsome beaver carpentry had blocked up the stream that ran through theirproperty. These two ingredients had made for some pretty substantial flooding.The stream needed to be cleared – in late February when temperatures rise abovefreezing for only a few ceremonial minutes each day.
Even for someone who likes cold weather, clearing the streamwas weary work. But for our dog at the time, Chessy, a hulking ninety pound Lab,the setting was edenic. He loved the work. Not only were the bleak below-freezingtemperatures not a problem, he intuitively understood what we were doing and immediatelybegan to mouth large sticks and branches, dragging them out of the water. Forhim, every moment was sheer bliss. It was probably the greatest day of hislife.
I like that dogs have that spirit.
In a time before we litigated ourselves into a corner, mydog, Hershey, would have gone to work with me every day. I always feel a twingeof jealousy whenever I go into a private shop where the owner has the option ofbringing his or her dog to work. These seem to be the happiest hounds; the oneswho still have a paw in the pack lifestyle. They have jobs and a purpose. Sure,I know that some folks are ambivalent when it comes to canines and others coulddo without them altogether. But for me that ember of earlier days, when peoplewere less homebound and spent most of their time outdoors, has not beencompletely purged from my DNA. Not so long ago, dogs were the weft to our warp.Today, the pieces don’t always fit. I once inspected a condo with two massive Mastiffspretzeled together on an oversized couch. Dogs and cats are, in some ways,vestiges of a bygone agrarian lifestyle, stowaways in our modern world ofscreens and wires.
As it is, dogs and cats are and will be the other occupants of our homes. And assuch they have a direct bearing on how a house functions and wears. Obviouslypeople have other pets, but the most common of these are in tanks or cages. Forthis reason, I am going to focus primarily on the effect cats and dogs have onour houses. My hope is that whether you’re an animal enthusiast or have petsand are planning to put your house on the market this blog will draw yourattention to some of the pet related conditions I frequently come across.
Food:
Pet food is a leading cause of visiting snakes.
Let me explain.
Having open containers of pet food is like setting up a freepizza buffet outside a freshman dorm. Insects and rodents from across your zipcode will flock to your house to feast on whatever kibble they can. Get acontainer that can be tightly sealed. Some dog food bags now have a littlezip-lock at the top, but, in my experience, these are about as reliable asasking a toddler to tie his or her shoes: you might get lucky but don’t bet onit. No. Have a container that seals well and clean up any food that spills out.This is the most proactive thing you can do to keep pests from pillaging thePurina.
Oh, right. The snakes. I have been in a lot of snaky houses.Trust me. Mice = snakes, and mice love pet food. Although a starving snakemight fancy a few forgotten flecks of Friskies, eliminating the mice by takingaway their food source goes a long way toward rerouting the reptiles.
Pet Damage:
The Nose Blind advertising campaign Febreze put out a few years ago was absolute genius. It was both funny and had a real truth behind it. If you’re thinking about putting your house on the market and you have pets, I would keep its maxim in mind. All except the most meticulous among us grow blind the damage our animals administer: scratched trim, pulled carpeting, stains, and odors. I’m rather nose blind when it comes to dogs, but I can tell if cats live in a house while knocking on the front door.
Now, I don’t think damage of this sort should be adetermining factor when considering a house. With few exceptions, pet damagerarely constitutes a safety concern. Nevertheless, I want to encourage sellersto think about doggie destruction and cat casualties this way: Say you haveyour heart set on peach ice cream. Straight up. No toppings. But the ice cream parlor you love only hasstrawberry ice cream. You might be a bit disappointed at first, but it’s not abig deal. Moreover, there’s a chance you may end up really liking strawberry onceyou try it. But what if you wanted peach and the parlor serves you strawberrywith mint chocolate sprinkles? Not only are you not getting the ice cream youhad in mind, it is covered in a topping that is at odds with the flavor. Asecond disappointment has entered the equation. At that point, you might decideit’s worth checking out another ice cream spot.
In other words, a few hundred bucks for a carpet cleaning orhaving a carpenter replace some trim is totally worth it if you save thousandsselling your house in a timely manner.
Pet Doors:
All pet doors claim to be the best at keeping weather andpests out. I wonder why they are so insistent about this… Could it be thatputting a door in another door or the wall inherently increases heat loss andinvites weather and pests into the house? For some pet owners, having a meansfor a cat or dog to get outside is worth the liability pet doors present;however, in my experience pet doors are like trendy home fitness equipment - doorattachments that allow you to do pull-ups or awkwardly hinged things yousqueeze - that give the impression they will undo years of savory sins. I’msure someone has achieved fitness nirvana in a corner of the living room, butthey are the exception not the rule. Most of these gimmicky gadgets usuallyfind a home in the attic. Likewise, the vast majority of the pet doors Iencounter provide about the same amount of protection as a tarp over awoodpile.
The Secret Bathroom:
Every now and then, home inspectors discover secretbathrooms: hidden passages and corners where even prim and proper pets sneakaway to pursue the call of nature. Examples: the knee wall passage that a tabbyhad turned into a veritable artist’s poo-dio, the large potted ferns by theFrench doors to the patio that are always so sickly, the storage area throughthe back of the coat closet in which two Chihuahuas had been dueling for scentsupremacy. The list is long, but I would be remiss not to share the story ofthe couple who thought the stains on their dining room ceiling were the resultof a leak from the little-used en suite bathroom above. Well, it was a leak,but the bathroom was not little-used. An elderly cat had been opening thecabinet door of the vanity to make pit stops when the journey to the litter boxat the other end of the house wasn’t worth the effort.
A little investigation might save a lot of embarrassment. Apotty-trained pet is like a two year-old trying undies for the first time. Ifyour success rate is above eighty percent, consider it amazing and way aboveaverage!
Don’t tank!:
For a moment, let’s steer way from out four legged friendsand think about fish tanks. The question I get most frequently is whether ornot the floor beneath a given tank is strong enough. This question shows a lotof intuition. The most popular size of fish tank is ten gallons. These don’tpresent weight related issues. Some folks, though, are as fanatic about fish asI am about dogs. I have been in houses where the owner could plausibly call thehome an aquarium and charge admission. Large tanks warrant specialconsideration.
A fifty gallon fish tank once filled can weigh more than sixhundred pounds! If you’re a budding ichthyologist the easiest thing to do is tohave your tanks in the basement where the slab rests on the ground. Now, if youhave your heart set on a large custom tank that spans a living room or bedroom,giving the impression you’re a rock star or pro athlete, I highly recommend youemploy an engineer to ensure that there is sufficient support under that largeloch you’re adding.
Finally, even if you just have a modest tank, take a moment every now and then to look for leakage. More than a few homeowners have moved a tank to find that a slow leak from the tank itself or the pump equipment has ruined the rug or warped the wood underneath. Remember too that wayward water provides an opportunity for mold to grow. A slow drip that soaks into the carpet is to mold as smoking at a gas station is to fire.
The Takeaway:
A lot of these observations can be boiled down to just beingproactive about pet-related maintenance. I admit, these things are easy todictate from afar but totally different when they compete with the sturm unddrang of everyday life. Cleaning the bathroom because guests are coming over isalways going win out over a whole house search to make sure the cat has beenusing proper discretion. On the other hand, if you’ve begun to notice nibblesaround the Meow Mix or have pets and are thinking about what you can do to getyour house ready for sale, I hope that these observations will help guide you.
- Joe
