Cats, Dogs, and Iguanas...Ohh My!!!

The Other Office Staff

​When I first started our residential cleaning services company it never occured to me that cleaning the insides of resident's homes may require contact with their househould pets. For, growing up in the Knight household this concept was very new to me. Of course, my grandmother kept dogs around our family home in North Carolina. However, they had their personal homes outside, and they were never allowed inside the house. Subsequently, my conact with most furry, four legged, or scally friends was pretty limited. Furthermore, due to a dramatic event involving a shitzu, and very scared 7 year old, I always had a fear of dogs and cats.

---

Nevertheless, as a residential cleaner I had to swallow my fears and learn to work around household animals. But not only dogs, their feline companions always felt like they smelled my fear and stalked me. Once I went to a friends barbeque and I swear their white, blue eyed cat sashayed next to me, flung his fluffy white tail of my shoulder and dared me to move. From then on I felt the animal world was watching me and could sense my anxiety and was ready to pounce at anytime.

However, one of the first memories that dispelled this myth was working for a client named Mr. Sullivan and his dog Hershey. Hershey was an old, dark brown, golden retriever that was around 10 years old with arthritis.  The animal could barely move so I had to frequently clean around him, even lifing his tail to vaccum the floor. When I first encountered the animal I was so afraid I nearly fell backwards. He stood about knee level and sat up straight, right by the door. Well, as I was about to take off for the hills he sniffed me a little and laid down. It then occured to me that maybe these furry friends are not so bad. 

I learned that like people many animals have different temperaments, but for the most part as you clean homes and the pets learn you and you them, relationships are formed and alliances are built. The one eyed cat in the picture is from one of our office buildings. The staff leaves cat food around the offices so to me he is one of the crew members as well. If he is hungry he will come up to the door, I will feed him, and he will be off. I enjoy Captain Jack as I call him, and our encounters definitely make me much more comfortable around animals.