Puking puppies, good referrals, happy home

Warning: This post contains mention of puppy puke. I don’t think it will bother you to read it, even if you have a weak stomach, but you have been warned!

So, as I have mentioned before, my dogs are inside dogs but they have not been for very long. Everything is going great with them – the dog hair is under control, thanks to the Roomba vacuum. They have rules that they follow, like no going in the bedrooms and no getting on the furniture and no going upstairs without a human supervisor. Breanna thinks rules are made to be broken, and I found her laying on the couch once when I left her alone for 2 minutes to take Kishin out. She also was sneaking upstairs in the middle of the night until we added a baby gate at the landing. Problem solved!

The other day, however, there was a little doggie incident that needed dealing with. And when I say little doggie incident, I mean big doggie incident. About 5 minutes after eating, Kishin barfed up all of his food, all over the living room floor. And then he took a few steps toward me, but he only made it to the other side of the couch before he barfed again. And then a few more steps, and again (this time on the tile, thank goodness.) Jess and I were standing in the kitchen and saw the whole thing happen – poor guy looked embarrassed, sick, and miserable. I hugged him and assured him he wasn’t in trouble, but when his bowels decided to get involved on the kitchen floor, it was time to ban the sick doggie to outside for a little bit.

Hope that wasn’t too graphic for you. I cleaned up the mess the best I could, but lets just say this was the worst case of throw-up I’ve ever seen, in a dog or a human or otherwise. I sprayed some stain remover on the floor after getting the solid pieces up, which I knew would do no good but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

So, then it was time to find a decent carpet cleaner to come out and try to fix this mess. I saw a Stanley Steemer commercial – 3 rooms for $109, but I wanted to use a small local business if possible. Thought about searching Google to see who was recommended, but thought I’d try Twitter and Facebook first. I’m glad I did! Here’s what I got:

The people Amy’s dad recommended were in Rock Hill, and I had no idea if they would come out to my house. But I wanted to try – I’m all about recommendations. I did, and a very nice guy named Kevin called me back to tell me he would be happy to come out. He would charge $25 per room, so I figured I’d get almost a room and a half “free” compared to the Stanley Steemer price. Sold!

He said he’d come out around 3:30 after a prior job; I told him I was flexible so to come whenever he wanted. Even still, he called at 3:20 to let me know he was running late. Not necessary, but very nice and professional.

Meantime, I spent the day moving furniture all by myself. Who moved the dining room table? That’d be me. Sectional? Me. Heavy CD cabinet? Me. That was my unintentional strength training day!

So, here’s a look at the carpet before Kevin got there: (you can see the 2 sets of puppy puke but I don’t think it’s too awful to look at. Still, be careful if you have a weak stomach)

And here’s some of the heavy furniture I moved:

I also decided to get the dining room carpets cleaned:

In addition, I would have him clean the staircase, the upstairs hallway, my office and Jeff’s office – but his office only if Kevin thought he could get out the stain that was left from some furniture feet.

Kevin arrived and I was instantly struck by how nice he was. When I showed him the dog incident, his first reaction was, “Oh no! What’s wrong with your dog?” For the record, I don’t know what was wrong with him. He is fine now, though. He was running around in the yard about 30 minutes later as if nothing had happened. I have heard of dogs getting doggie flu or contagious stomach viruses (contagious to other dogs, not people) and I kept my eye on Breanna but she seemed fine.

Then Kevin took a look at Jeff’s office, the room I was unsure about. He said, “I’ll try to get it out and if it doesn’t work I won’t charge you.” Sounds good to me.

He was very nice the whole time he was here – making conversation about the black and white photography in the hallway – turns out his wife is a photographer, so I gave him my card in case she needs any graphic design – and asking about what kind of dog Kishin is (he’s a doberman and border collie), to which he said, “That is a BIG dog!”

He did give me this tip, which Jess had also told me: If you put stain remover on the carpet and the stain does not come up, sometimes the remover sets it in. I would have been better off not putting anything down, considering there was no way I was going to get it out. He was upfront in that he didn’t know if he could get it all up (I’m telling you, folks, that was some bad stuff. That picture does not do it justice.)

He finished, told me he could not get the furniture rings up from Jeff’s office, so he only charged me for 5 areas, and apparently the hallway was only $20! So $120 for 6 rooms. After he left I peeked in Jeff’s office, assuming he had just tried to spot clean that area, but no – he actually cleaned the whole room – for free.

In addition, he told me that when the carpet dries it’s possible some spots will reappear. If that happens, to give him a call back and he’ll come treat it again for free!

Here’s the living room now:

Much better! Still a discoloration where the puke was, but much, much better. I will call these guys back anytime. And it shows the power of Facebook and Twitter, once again, and that word of mouth is key! Speaking of, if you need your carpets cleaned, their number is (803) 366-8513. Tell Kevin I sent you!