The Brown Rug

Last fall, Ben and I bought a nice expensive brown area rug from West Elm. It was huge and not only looked great in our living room, but muffled the pounding and pawing of dog’s play. It’s textured and ridged so the dogs also loved to scratch their backs on it. I was happy to let them and promptly bought a cheap vacuum to suck up their fur, the shedding amplified by the course texture of the rug and their apparent obsession with scratching their backs on it.

The vacuum wasn’t quite up to the task. In order to properly clean the rug I had to vacuum it on hands and knees with one hand pressing the vacuum into the rug. It took a long time to clean, but nothing compares to the mess Brenda made in the first few weeks she lived with us. Maybe it was because the rug smelled so much like Porter and Sadie or maybe she enjoyed the camouflage effect, but she loved to poop (and pee) on our expensive brown rug.

The last straw was when I was out to dinner with some friends and Ben sent me the following text message: Don’t worry. I was able to rent a wet vac!

The brown rug is currently stored in a plastic bag (though still soiled and in need of another cleaning) underneath our bed for the day when Brenda is housetrained. Maybe the day will come soon.