Yes, it is distressing and it is easy to get angry with the cat. Who wants a smelly house?

Cat urine is one of the more challenging odors to remove especially when not using proper cleaning products.

When cat urine is allowed to dry in a carpet, amino acids in the urine actually bonds with the fibers of the rug.

Salts in the urine form crystals that causes another type of bond with an ionic charge. The longer the urine has been on the rug, the stronger these bonds become.

Using a homemade cleaner will not dissolve these bonds, nor does steam cleaning your carpet. Sometimes steam cleaning will make the problem worse.

Some commercially available ?pet odor removers? work by masking the odor by masking the foul smell caused by the bacteria that is using the urine as it's source for fuel.

Other products use compounds in the attempt to absorb the smell.

These products, along with the home made remedies, may have short term results, but in order to completely eliminate the odor, (and to not encourage your cat to soil in the same place) every trace of the urine needs to be removed by cleaners that can undo the strong bonds between the fibers of your rug and the urine.

So, you have a wet spot, what do you do first?

1.Mop up as much of the urine as you possibly can. Use absorbent paper towels or old towels. Lay them on the spot and blot until there is no trace of wetness. Recognize that you may only see a small part of the spot as the urine soaks into the padding under the carpet. Be careful adding water to the spot. You don't want the spot to spread out into the padding underneath.

2.Use an enzymatic cleaner that you can inject into the padding underneath the carpet. Inject the cleaner in order to cover a spot ? a foot in diameter, then spray the surface of the spot with the cleaner.

3.When using a proper cleaner, that is all you need to do. No rinsing needed. Keep your cat away from the area until it is completely dry which can take a few days.

Remember, even though it may be easy when you are ?in the moment?, do not scold your cat. Cats are fastidious about cleanliness and do not want to eliminate where they eat, sleep or play.

Inappropriate urination is a symptom that something is not OK. You may need to investigate what caused your cat to not use the box along with some enticement to use the box again. Not correcting the reason your cat is not going in the box may keep you cleaning your carpets and furniture over and over again.

Armed with the correct information and the proper products cleaning the urine from your carpet while preventing the behavior to re-occur, you are well on your way to have a happy purring kitty and a clean smelling home.