Father’s Day definitely did not start out good. The evening before was not so great either. That started with my wife, Rose, complaining about a smell in the kitchen. I smelled nothing but I have the nose of a mere human. Rose, on the other hand, was the subject of a secret government experiment where her nose was genetically altered to that of a blood hound’s nose. She can smell a fly fart two houses down.
She did a thorough search of the kitchen but couldn’t find the source of the smell. We then went outside and she said “It smells worse out here!” There happened to be a bag of cat poop that I put outside the door but hadn’t yet put in the trash so we assumed it was that.
About this same time we were preparing dinner because Rose’s sister and here family were in town and coming to our house for dinner. That’s when we noticed the water was backing up in the sink. I had no Draino or sink plunger or time to go get one. The water drained out slowly and we were able to get through dinner but I had to wash dishes a few at a time.
Before I did anything else Sunday morning I decided to take off the P-trap and clean it. Unfortunately, the P-trap only unscrewed from one end. The other end was glued. It was hard but I managed to get the one side to separate from the other.
I was about to go to Home Depot to get an auger but Rose starting complaining loudly about how horrific it smelled in the house and I needed to look under the house to see what died. At that time, my human nose was starting to smell something. It was faint but it was there.
I found my flashlight but of course the batteries were dead. It needed three batteries and I managed to find two. Wonderful. “What else could go wrong?” I did manage to steal a battery from one of Rose’s beauty instruments, and went outside to see what I could see. I didn’t see anything but there were flies so I knew something had died under the house.
I went to Home Depot and got an auger and ran it through the p-trap but there was no obstruction. I then ran it down the main line as far as it would go but found nothing. At around this time, I don’t remember exactly when, Frankie escaped. I didn’t pursue him but worked on the drain for awhile hoping he would return but after a half hour he still wasn’t back.
I took another look under the house and that is when I found it. It was difficult to see and considering how close to the edge it was I was surprised I missed it. I couldn’t tell what kind of animal it was but I feared it was a cat because it had what looked like a cat’s paw.
Rose said, “You’ve got to get that out of there. I can’t take the smell for another day.”
“I know,” I said, “but it’s just too gross.” It wasn’t just the smell, it was the flies too. And if it was a cat I would be very sad to see that.
I needed to go back to Home Depot to get masks and gloves and a heavy duty drain cleaner but I didn’t want to leave before I found Frankie so I decided to go out looking. By then it was close to 11:00 and it was already hot and humid. I had walked around a little already but now I got my bike out and peddled around the neighborhood. After twenty minutes I gave up and came home.
When I got home I grabbed a can of flying insect killer and sprayed around the area where the dead animal was, which happened to be next to the air conditioner. That was probably how the smell was getting into the house. When I walked back around to the other side of the house I saw Frankie on top of Rose’s car. He meowed at me as if to say, “Where have you been?”
Now that Frankie was home I headed back to home depot. When I returned Rose and I put on masks and gloves like we were part of a hazmat team. I have a grabber tool so I brought that and a shovel to the other side of the house. I removed the bricks and used the grabber to pull out the animal which was a tabby cat. So sad. That is not something I ever want to do again.
It is now almost 4:00. My son is coming over around 6:00 but the drain cleaner didn’t work and our sink is no longer draining slow. It is not draining at all and both sides now have two inches of dirty water. We were going to cook dinner but now we need to make other plans. I did not really want to fight the crowds at a restaurant on Father’s day but we have no choice.
Here’s hoping all the Dad’s out there are having a better day.
Update: We ended up ordering takeout. My son came over and we ate pizza and watched a movie. The day certainly ended better than it started.
Bad Cat Chris 
oh my. I feel beyond awful for you. I am so sorry. That poor kitty. That is simply heartbreaking. Thank goodness Frankie turned up too!! Hoping the day gets MUCH better!
Thanks Caren. It ended on a high note.
Oh what a day! I’m so sorry about the poor kitty…so very sad. 😦 I hope you can get the sink fixed.Try and enjoy your dinner out and the rest of your Father’s Day.
We ended up ordering pizza but I got to see my son which was good.
I too am sorry about the kitty. But I can identify with you, too. You strt out to do one job and end up having to do fifteen more in order to get back to job 1, When you’re out to dinner, buy two sink plungers and you and your son can each plunge a sink at the same time. (There are double sinks here too, but I live alone, so…it’s a great arm workout.)
Thanks. We never made it out to dinner. We just got takeout. I bought two sink plungers. My wife held down one plunger while I plunged the other side. It didn’t work.
Silver lining time: Frankie came home, and the cat under the house was not one of your beloved cats. It does hurt my heart that a kitty died all alone. Kitchen disasters always happen when you are having guests or family over for a meal. It’s some kind of rule of the universe. Sounds like it’s time to call a plumber…tomorrow. You don’t want to pay Sunday or holiday rates. Enjoy your dinner out! Happy Father’s Day. XOCK, angel Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy and Sawyer
Thanks. I was happy about Frankie coming home. I was starting to worry about him.
Oh my what a time of it you had today! And how sad about the poor kitty. I hope you can at least enjoy the rest of the day with your family.
My son came over and the day ended very nicely. Thanks.
That is so sad. I wonder whose cat he was? 😦
I don’t think I’ve seen that cat around before. Sometimes when animals are sick they will find a place to hide. Maybe that is what happened
Oh meow is me, Mr. Charles, I’m so sorry to hear that you had an awful Father’s Day! I’m also quite relieved to know my dear furiend Frankie is fine.
Purrseidon
Thanks. I was very glad to see Frankie come back even though he was not even getting on Rose’s new car.
My staff has issues with us getting on top of vehicles, too.
Purrseidon
🙂
Oh how sad but you are a wonderful Cat Daddy.
Thanks. 🙂
oh how sad that it was really a cat… but to find any kind of pet would give me a heavy heart… fortunately Rose smelled it and you could act asap…
There have been many times when Rose’s nose has come in handy but usually I just have to listen to her complain about smells.
What an awful day. 😦
I don’t want to go through that again but I was happy that I got to see my son that evening.
Oh how awful! Super sad about the poor kitty dying alone under your house but I imagine that was a terrible thing to go through all the way around. I agree though – there are a lot of issues we can do on our own but yours sounds very “plumber-worthy” and I bet they can fix it in no time. Not a happy Father’s Day for sure.
Hugs, Pam
It did end well with my son’s visit so that was one good thing.
Sorry about the sink. We were just dealing with the same thing. My son snaked and augered. I bought chemicals. I read about using hot water and a vacuum cleaner to remove a stubborn clog. Thank goodness it worked. Who knows how much a plumber would have cost.
I’m glad it worked out for you. Our clog was just too far away.