Life As it Is (a story about cat hair)

This is a boring little story about laminate, cats and cat hair. Feel free to stop reading now. I don't feel a life lesson or moral to the story coming on so this may very well be a waste of words.

Anyway ...

I have been diligently waging a daily war on cat hair around here since the dust has settled on our new laminate. It is a thankless task and I weigh the pros and cons of laminate verses wall-to-wall carpeting on a regular basis.

My new routine consists of vacuuming and/or wet mopping the laminate daily. There is no satisfaction of freshly vacuumed lines on a pile carpet or the tinkle of debris finding its way up the vacuum cleaner hose (except for the time I accidentally vacuumed up a cat toy when I intended to push it aside with the vacuum attachment).

My black socks are a cat hair magnet so that is the ruler I use to see how I'm doing in this fight against cat hair. It could be better. It could be worse.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I decided I would just mop down the floors instead of vacuuming. When I vacuum, I blindly vacuum under my bed and hope for the best. Yesterday before I mopped under my bed I took a peek under first and discovered some cat vomit (I warned you ... you had every chance to stop reading before you got here). I smiled and reassured myself that laminate was definitely the best choice in flooring as I proceeded to clean the cat-mess.

I had to sprawl out and I was lying flat out on the floor. I was fully committed to the task at hand and I was on the floor from elbows to my ankles.

I cleaned up the mess then checked myself out for cat hair. I was prepared to find myself looking like Big Foot's mother. I scanned myself for cat fur and was delighted to find I came out of the full on floor sprawl with minimal hair attached to my being in the aftermath.

Cleaning invisible dirt isn't fun. But in this war against cat hair, I think I scored a point yesterday. The laminate definitely inched ahead in the competition against carpeting.

I complain of all these mundane things but in reality I am over-the-moon grateful for these petty little annoyances. I adore these furry little black cats and all their hair. I am so grateful our carpeting has been replaced by wall-to-wall, fully washable flooring. I love the way I feel when I walk through our home, cat hair and all. I enjoy knowing the house is as clean as it is.

It could be better. It could be worse. I'm simply grateful for life as it is.