When I was in Texas back in February, G was not the only member of my family who was unhappy that I had gone away. Sam too expressed his displeasure by peeing on the sofa in my office. He had done the foul deed before, and I was fit to be tied, and one of my first tasks upon my return was googling such fascinating subjects as "cat pees on furniture" which proved to be worthwhile as I learned about the usefulness of vodka, to whit:
Cats don't like the smell
It removes odors
It removes stains
After I poured vodka in a spray bottle and liberally dosed the scene of the crime, I was shocked at how good my pale gray sofa looked, all the rings and pee stains almost magically disappeared. I put the vodka aside and forgot about it.
Until last week when I was despairing over stains that were not coming out of linen napkins and thoughts that I might have to resort to special actions such as:
using only paper napkins
keeping two sets of napkins, one marked G,and one for general use, or
using linen napkins myself and giving G only paper napkins, further stigmatizing him,
when it occurred to me that I still had a bottle of vodka in the house, and if it worked on a sofa it might just work on badly stained napkins. After all, what did I have to lose (except some good vodka).
So I doused the stains with the vodka and allowed them to sit. Then I put the napkins in their normal pre-treat enzymatic bath for a few hours, then washed them. They came out mostly stain free, and they ironed beautifully as well. Well linen usually irons beautifully and perhaps they just seemed special because I was so happy, but I do think they ironed up just a little more crisply than usual, but not at all as stiff as if I had starched them.
Now of course, I used good vodka in this experiment because that is what I had in the house in the mistaken idea that I should have vodka that I like to drink. This sounds good except that I really don't drink vodka. I would be surprised if I drank vodka twice a year, and then probably only when I am out, not at home. So the next bottle will be your basic cheap vodka. I am sure it will work just as well.
