Cats and Dogs

Bathing

• Downy Fabric Softener. When bathing your dog or cat, mix one capful Downy Fabric Softener in two quarts of water and use as final rinse, then rinse the animal clean with water. The fabric softener leaves the animal's coat feeling soft and smelling fresh.

• Johnson's Baby Shampoo. To shampoo your dog, use Johnson's Baby Shampoo and then rinse clean. The fragrant baby shampoo leaves your pet smelling fresh and it won't hurt your pet's eyes.

• Kingsford's Corn Starch. To give your pet a dry shampoo, rub Kingsford's Corn Starch into your dog or cat's fur, then brush out.

• Murphy Oil Soap. Add a few drops of Murphy Oil Soap in your dog's bath water to moisturize and soften a dog's skin and coat. Murphy Oil Soap is pure vegetable oil soap.

• S.O.S Steel Wool Pads. To avoid clogging the bathtub or sink drain when bathing a dog or cat, ball up an S.O.S Steel Wool Pad and shove it in the drain opening to catch stray hairs.

Catnip Balls

• L'eggs Sheer Energy Panty Hose. To make a catnip ball, cut off the foot of a clean, used pair of L'eggs Sheer Energy Panty hose, stuff it with catnip, and knot it closed.

Food Bowls

• Frisbee. When camping, hiking, or traveling, a Frisbee can double as a food or water dish for your dog or cat.

• McCormick Ground Cinnamon. To keep ants out of pet food left in a dog or cat's food bowl, sprinkle McCormick Ground Cinnamon around the pet's food. Cinnamon repels ants.

• Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. To repel ants from a pet's food bowl, rub a small dab of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly around the bottom rim of the bowl.

Furniture

• Bounce. To keep a cat from walking along the tops of chairs or sofas, rub the spot with a clean, used sheet of Bounce. The fragrance in the Bounce repels cats.

• Reynolds Wrap. To prevent a cat from walking across your sofa or other furniture, place a sheet of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil across the item. When your cat tries to walk on the aluminum foil, the rustling sound will frighten your pet away.

• Tabasco Pepper Sauce. To stop a dog from chewing wood furniture around the house, put a few drops of Tabasco Pepper Sauce on a clean cloth and rub the tangy sauce into the wood furniture. When the Tabasco Pepper Sauce dries, you won't smell it at all, but your dog, with its keen sense of smell, will stay away from the furniture.

Garbage Cans

• McCormick Black Pepper. To keep dogs and cats out of your garbage cans, sprinkle McCormick Black Pepper around the cans. The animals, with their keen sense of smell, catch a whiff of the pepper and take off for someone else's garbage cans.

• Parsons' Ammonia. To stop neighborhood dogs and cats from invading your garbage cans, sprinkle a few drops of Parsons' Ammonia around garbage cans. The foul fumes repel animals.

• WD-40. To keep dogs out of trash cans, give the trashcans a thin coat of WD-40. The unique fragrance of WD-40 repels animals.

Houseplants

• Maxwell House Coffee. To prevent a cat from having a love affair with your houseplants, add used Maxwell House Coffee grounds to the top of the potting soil. Kitty will be turned off by the scent of coffee. The coffee grounds, filled with nutrients, also fertilize the plants.

Lawns and Gardens

• Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. Is a neighborhood dog urinating on your lawn and causing yellow burn spots? In a watering can, mix one cup Arm & Hammer Baking Soda in one gallon of water and water the urine spots with the mixture every three days, saturating the area. The baking soda deodorizes the urine so the offending dog will no longer recognize the marked territory, and the sodium bicarbonate neutralizes the acidity of the urine so the grass can regain its color.

• Bounce. To keep cats out of your yard, hang fresh sheets of Bounce on your fence posts, shrubs, or trees. The fragrance of oleander in the Bounce is a natural cat repellent. Mist the Bounce sheets every few days with water from a trigger-spray bottle to reawaken the powerful scent.

• French's Mustard, Gold Medal Flour, and McCormick Ground (Cayenne) Red Pepper. To repel cats from your yard with a harmless, all-natural solution, mix two tablespoons French's Mustard, two tablespoons Gold Medal Flour, one tablespoon McCormick Ground Red Pepper, and two cups water in a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle. Shake vigorously and spray the spicy solution around flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, or the perimeter of your yard.

• Heinz White Vinegar. To repel cats naturally, fill a trigger-spray bottle with Heinz White Vinegar and spray around the border of the garden or the perimeter of your yard.

• Maxwell House Coffee. To repels cats from your garden and prevent them from digging up the soil, fertilize the plants around your garden with used Maxwell House Coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are packed with nutrients that your plants love, but cats are turned off by the scent of coffee.

• Tabasco Pepper Sauce, McCormick Garlic Powder, and Dawn Dishwashing Liquid. To repel cats and dogs from your yard, mix two tablespoons Tabasco Pepper Sauce, two tablespoons McCormick Garlic Powder, a few drops Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, and two cups water in a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle. Spray the spicy solution around the perimeter of your yard to keep cats and dogs away.

Litter Boxes

• Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. To deodorize a cat litter box, cover the bottom of the litter box with a ¼-inch layer of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda and then add the litter on top.

• Glad Trash Bags. If you're tired of cleaning the cat liter box or you've run out of cat box liners, place the cat litter box inside a Glad Trash Bag and pour the cat box filler on top of the plastic covering the open side of the box. To clean, lift out the bag, turn it inside out, and discard.

• 20 Mule Team Borax. To control the odors created in a cat litter box, mix one and a half cups 20 Mule Team Borax to every five pounds of cat box filler.

Pet Hair

• Alberto VO5 Hair Spray and Kleenex Tissues. To remove pet hair from furniture, spray a Kleenex Tissue with Alberto VO5 Hair Spray and pat the furniture with the sticky tissue to pick up the shed hairs.

• Bounce. To pick up shed pet hair, rub the area with a clean, used sheet of Bounce, which magnetically attracts all the loose hairs.

• Scotch Packaging Tape. To clean pet hair from upholstered furniture, take a strip of Scotch Packaging Tape, wrap it around your hand sticky-side out, and pat the upholstery.

• Silly Putty. Make a ball of Silly Putty, flatten it into a pancake, and gently pat the upholstery. You'll have furry Silly Putty, but a clean couch.

Pooper Scoopers

• Clorox Bleach jug. To make a pooper scooper, cut a empty, clean Clorox Bleach jug in half and use the half with the handle to scoop up whatever mess your pet makes.

• Ziploc Storage Bags. To scoop up presents left behind by your cat or dog, turn a Ziploc Storage Bag inside out, put your hand inside the bag like a glove, pick up the mess, pulling the bag right-side out again, seal shut, and discard.

Stains

• Canada Dry Club Soda and Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. After blotting up as much of the pet stain as possible from the carpet, pour a small amount of Canada Dry Club Soda onto the stain, rub gently with a sponge, and then blot up with paper towel. Let dry thoroughly, sprinkle on Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, let sit for fifteen minutes, and then vacuum up. The baking soda neutralizes the odor.

• Heinz White Vinegar. If your pet stains your carpet, you don't have to re-carpet or put the house up for sale. Mix one part Heinz White Vinegar to one part water in a sixteen-ounce trigger spray bottle. Or use the vinegar full strength. Just saturate the spot on the carpet. Your house is going to smell like urine and vinegar for about three days (so you may want to take a quick trip to Hawaii), but once the vinegar dries, it completely deodorizes the stain—effectively and inexpensively. The vinegar also prevents your pet from returning to that spot.

• Huggies Baby Wipes. To clean pet urine from carpet, use a Huggies Baby Wipe to blot up the liquid.

• Lysol All Purpose Cleaner and Parsons' Ammonia. Mix ½ cup Lysol All Purpose Cleaner, one teaspoon Parsons' Ammonia, and one quart water. Use a sponge dipped in this solution to clean a pet accident from the carpet. This mixture also deodorizes the stain.

• 20 Mule Team Borax. Dampen the spot, rub in 20 Mule Team Borax, let dry, then vacuum or brush clean. Borax absorbs the nasty odors.

• Pampers and Heinz White Vinegar. Open a Pampers disposable diaper, place it face down over the stain, and put some heavy books on top of the diaper. Let it sit for one hour. After the superabsorbent polymer flakes in the diaper soak up most of the urine, clean the remaining stain with Heinz White Vinegar (see above).

• Parsons' Ammonia. After cleaning cat urine from carpet using Heinz White Vinegar (see above), rub the spot with a cloth dampened in Parsons' Ammonia, both deodorizing the spot and preventing the cat from urinating in that spot again.