"House-a-tosis?"

    Does your house have bad breath??  When you open your door to someone, do they reel back and decide not to go in?  Well, ok, so I'm exaggerating.  I did know people who had a house like that, though.  It must have been their thirty cats and four dogs.  No exaggeration, in fact, that's a conservative estimate!
    These people, who shall remain nameless for unknown reasons, did not spay or neuter, so the population of cats just kept exploding.  When I say there were cats and cat poop everywhere you could imagine trying to navigate the house without stepping on something.  There was no kitchen - the dogs had chewed it up, and there was a hole in the floor.  I kid you not!
    I should have stopped at a gas station to use the rest room before I went there because I felt like I was going to get ill when I went into the bathroom.  Of course there were cats, kittens, and the lingering aroma of animal secretions there, too.  I had to wash the toilet seat before I sat.  EEW!  I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it!
    I had to get out of there pronto!  Something happened that I had never experienced before - when I left the house, the smell seemed to be stuck in my nose.  I remember it was hours before my nose cleared.  Have you ever had that experience?  Well there were only two other times that I experienced foul odor stuck in my nose, but this particular time had to be the worst!
    I just can't imagine why people choose to live like this!  Ain't it amazing?

Comments

[Annie]

I don't think I've been in someone's house that smelled that bad - although I was in an empty one that was for sale that was horrible. I've been in some pretty dirty houses. Once I was watching someone's dog when they went of vacation, and the floor was covered in stuff. The kitchen sink was clogged and full of rotting milk and food - you know what, I don't want to think about that!

[Janet]

I think the worst I've smelled in someones house was a musty smell everytime I went to my Grandmothers' house. To this day I can walk into a house and recognize the smell. One year in school, kids clothing smelled of cats who were not "fixed". Their clothes stank of cats "marking their territory". That is a very strong smell that you carry with you in your nose for a while. Poor kids, it wasn't their fault.

[An orange]

In Providence, RI lawmakers are trying to outlaw having more than three cats in a household. You might be interested in reading about that :)

[Mel]

I used to babysit for some people who had cats that had "marked their territory" in the house. Oh My Bob! It was bad! I can't imagine living with a horrendous smell like that! Although, they probably were so used to it, that they didn't smell it at all!

[Andrew]

Ha ha, house-a-tosis! That's hilarious. I thought my grandfather made that word up. There are some real estate agents in my family, and yeah, they have told me some stories of foul-smellin' houses.