My husband and I, at the time of our homestudy, had 8 cats, 1 dog, and 4 parakeets.

We had a cat, who was only 2, that died a few months prior from renal failure, and apparently, he had been marking our home, and being we lived in it all the time, didn't smell it.

So, our homestudy worker, upon completion of the first visit, said that the cat smell was her only concern regarding the adoption, and then she left.

We immediately were relieved because our social worker actually came to our home to pick up our homestudy and had just said to work on the smell, which we had been doing.

The next day, she had contacted our social worker, and said that the cat urine smell was OVERWHELMING and that we needed to pull out our carpet and get rid of our sofa, etc!!!

That was hardly what she implied the day before!!!

Well, this house we live in will ultimately be inherited to us, so being my parents own it, we have to ask their permission, and she did not give it (imagine that, after begging for 8 years to get that old yellow 70's shag out of my home LOL).

So, we spent $100's of dollars on wasted products and steam cleanings.

Our homestudy worker was NOT supposed to put into the home study that the cat urine smell was overwhelming, BUT, she did.

ULTIMATELY, we DID have to rip out our carpet, and surprise...GORGEOUS hardwood was underneath the carpet. SUCH a delight!!!

But, for those of you that do have pets, if you take anything from this, please let it be this.

The homestudy does not care how many pets you have as long as:

• The shots are current (especially rabies)


• The pets are well behaved and not a danger to people


• The smell of them is well managed or corrected


• You are willing to refuse referrals from allergic children or ones with history of animal abuse

Until Tonight,
Kristi