Have you ever walked into a house and smelt the cat or in many cases, the cats? Cat odor is bad, but there are worse smells.
A while back, while I was still involved with a home party company, I went out to give a presentation. I’ll never forget the hostess opening the door and just about being knocked off my feet as the stench of animals wafted out the door. I briefly thought – NO WAY, I can’t handle this! The hostess had worked so hard collecting pre-show orders and was so excited that I took a deep breath of night air, pasted on my show face and went inside.
After navigating a narrow hallway stacked to the ceiling with boxes, glancing into a kitchen where you couldn’t see a space on the counter top or table and lifting my clothing rack over the sofa, I finally found a small space of floor to set up my display.
I found one source of the horrible odor when I looked behind the sofa. A wall to wall to ceiling ferret cage dominated the room. I think there were 4 ferrets in total. That wasn’t all. There were multiple cats too. Kittens bounced on the sofa and a very large, furry cat resided on the back of a chair. By now my eyes are watering, not from allergies, but from the smell.
It was the shortest presentation in history. When I arrived back home, I unwrapped my clothing rack and left it in the garage. It resided there for a week or so while the pet odor dissipated.
Since then and until I finished my home party career, I asked about pets in the home when I booked the parties.
That experience made me very sensitive to pet odor in my own home and the response of guests to those odors. We have 2 cats and a dog. My girlfriend, Kim Plumley, was over a few weeks back. Kim is not fond of animals in the house. It was great to hear her confirm that we have zero pet odor in our home!
Do you remember the days when you went to the grocery store and were handed a paper bag full of groceries, and maybe it was even double bagged because the groceries were heavy. Those bags were used for lunches and then for garbage. When they were transported to the landfill, they decomposed. Those were the bags that fit over your brother’s head when he was being a pain – and you didn’t have to worry about suffocating him. You could even make a mask for Halloween, cutting eye holes and drawing a face on them. Where did paper bags go?
With all the paper we recycle, why can’t we make paper bags again?
Plastic bags are now taboo too. You receive evil looks at the grocery store when you’ve forgotten the cloth bag and agree to pay $.05 for the privilege of having a bag to carry your groceries home in. Plastic bags were great to have around the house. They made great lunch bags to send to school in Vancouver when it’s raining. They are essential when you’re walking the dog and can even be worn as rubber boots if absolutely necessary!
Now we have cloth bags. They are in vogue. I would love to have the cloth tested to see how much of it is made from recycled plastic. We send so many of our bags to recycling where it’s compressed into plastic pellets and reformed into many different things. I just bet that one of those things is “cloth” bags.
Another challenge with cloth bags is the contamination that has been reported lately. Meat packaging that has leaked into the bag can cause harmful bacteria to grow inside the bag which may result in illness.
The Edson Leader reports that the Canadian Plastics Industry recently commissioned an independent study on a random sampling of cloth bags showing that 30 per cent of the sample had unsafe levels of bacterial contamination. Forty per cent of the sample had yeast or mold. Cynics in the crowd, (those in the blogging world) hinted that the study was the plastic industry’s way to lobby against cloth bag manufacturers to protect their own turf because less people are using plastic bags in favour of cloth. There is probably a grain of truth to this accusation.
As cloth bags are sold almost everywhere and are highly recommended, here are some tips to keep them healthy and ready to use.
Avoid cross contamination – place fruits and vegetables in one bag and meat in a different one.
Wash your bags regularly with soap and warm water.
Store bags in a well ventilated area.
Make sure the bags you leave in the car are washed and clean.
Keep Crisper Fresh-N pouches in your bags to absorb all smells.
Tomorrow is day 3 of our 10 days of vending at the 2009 World Police and Fire Games at the Burnaby Lake Athlete’s Village on Kensington and Joe Sakic Way in Burnaby.
It’s been very hot the last 2 days. Crowds are still quite light as the games are just getting started. Today was busier than Saturday. Soccer started in full force with 35 games played today. Hockey also started today and both 8 Rinks and the Bill Copeland Arenas were busy. With over 10,000 athletes here in the Lower Mainland, it’s a very exciting place to be.
Today we chatted with some very nice firefighters from Trinidad and Tobago, some folks from Australia, a lovely lady from Newport Beach, CA, ladies from Holland and we caught a glimpse of the Swedish hockey team. Tomorrow will be a very fun day as we’ve created some promotional fliers and the girls are going be out handing them out and seeing how many photos they can collect.
We also hand fun by creating a contest for passersby. We played Toss the Rocks! Toss a Diva Diamondz and if it lands completely on the square we’ve created on the asphalt, you win your choice of Diva Diamondz, Gentlemen Gems or a Bill Reid print courtesy of Metropolis, Metrotown, our neighbours. Between our game and handing out Freezies to people passing, we were able to draw people to the booth and create some conversation.
We are looking to have a great day tomorrow and will update our twitter page and this blog as the week goes on.
