Cat pee boots, yuck

February 27, 2009 1:15 AM

The cat peed in my daughter's Doc Martins. I'm pretty sure I know why (she had visited another home with cats, one may have been in heat), but how can i get the smell out? I've tried baking soda and febreeze. Oh, the cat is a spayed female and it was not a full on pee, more of a marking squirt. Smells terrible though.
posted by alltomorrowsparties to home & garden (12 comments total)

You need Nature's Miracle, or some other enzyme-based biological-substances eater. Spray them liberally and leave them in the sunshine until they don't stink.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:23 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

Bleach on a moistened felt cloth stuffed within the shoes, enclosed in a plastic bag tied with with a twist tie left for 24 hours in a dark cool place.
posted by watercarrier at 1:27 AM on February 27

Yeah, Nature's Miracle or other enzyme-cleaner cleans even gross rabbit pee. I think there is special formula for cats - not sure if it differs that much from the regular stuff, but it's worth a try.
posted by barnone at 3:44 AM on February 27

Definitely Nature's Miracle - you'll be able to find it at Petsmart or somewhere like that. I also want to recommend Odors Away, which Ace Hardware usually has in stock. A friend of mine swears it does an amazing job to get rid of odors. Apparently just a drop or two does the job.
posted by belau at 5:07 AM on February 27

I have used Nature's Miracle and it's OK, but cat pee is serious business. You can use every fancy enzyme-based cleaner in the world and every weird recipe you find on the Internet, but after wearing those boots all day and pulling off her hot, sweaty boots... It's gonna reek. Toss them, because they will never ever be the same.
posted by kbanas at 5:33 AM on February 27

Buy a big bottle of Nature's Miracle, saturate the crap out of the boots. Get them as open as possible and leave them someplace room temperature or slightly lower to dry.

Second step is important-- don't heat the boots (by wearing them or putting them somewhere warm to speed the drying) because you'll want any ammonia that wasn't neutralized to dissipate gently rather than get set into the fibers. I don't know why it happens, but if you speed dry them, you'll get whiffs of pee when the fabric get stretched. I learned this through trial and error.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:58 AM on February 27

Nature's Miracle is child's play. Anti-Icky Poo. Used at my chi-chi cat-only vet to get any kind of cat scent out of any of their clothes, blankets, pads, etc.
posted by oflinkey at 6:05 AM on February 27 [4 favorites]

p.s.- get it on Amazon.
posted by oflinkey at 6:06 AM on February 27

Seconding anti-icky-poo. We had a cat pee in several places on our carpet over the course of several months, and though we tried other things, including several rounds of steam-cleaning with "anti-pet odor" shampoos, anti-icky-poo is the only thing that actually worked. It's more expensive than the other stuff (last I looked, ~$28 for a gallon), but it's absolutely worth it.
posted by Janta at 6:13 AM on February 27

Also, if you have access to a black light, shine it on the shoes to see exactly where the cat peed. The areas that had urine hit them will fluoresce and make it easy to target. The pet supply store may have little black light kits for this very reason.
posted by onhazier at 7:15 AM on February 27

vinegar neutralises the smell too.
posted by rhymer at 10:21 AM on February 27

Sol-u-mel. It's a Melaleuca product. It will kill any smell or clean anything up, even blood. They have some sort of business dealy that goes along with it, but I'm pretty sure that you can just buy it online. It has a million uses so even if it doesn't work you can use it for other stuff.
posted by anniek at 12:10 AM on March 1