If you share your home with a furry companion, you likely deal with pet hair on a daily basis. While you may have become accustomed to this common pet parent problem, your non dog or cat owning friends might be more than a little taken aback when they come to visit and find their favorite black wool pants now more closely resemble a mohair blend. Even more embarrassing is inviting a group of pals over for a summertime barbecue only to spot one of your closest friends lifting a bite of his perfectly prepared steak to his mouth with a distinctive tan-colored dog hair hanging from his fork. When faced with these hairy debacles, what is a pet owner to do? Do you tell your friend to put down that fork, or let them take that first nibble and pray they don’t detect the presence of Fido’s hair in the process? Pet owners do the best they can to keep dog and cat hair at bay, but unfortunately, bathing, brushing, and regular grooming often just isn’t enough since hair is airborne. Dog and cat parents worldwide often resign themselves to the role of having to apologize for their hairy house.
Having Pets While Still Maintaining a Social Life at Your Home
The truth is people who don’t own pets often choose not to share their lives with them for a reason. Some may be allergic to dog or cat hair and dander while others might prefer a home that is unmarred by the mess pets bring along with them. While we love our friends and want them to accept us as we are, some people are turned off when asked to come to a pet owner’s home for a social outing if they know they will come away from the evening facing an expensive dry cleaning bill and having to avoid eye contact with the taxi driver for fear of the embarrassment incurred by their now very furry attire.
However, though many pet owners want to accommodate their friends’ personal preferences, their dogs and cats are important family members, and they have no desire to curtail Fido or Fifi’s role in their home simply to gain the opportunity to entertain on occasion.
If you own a dog or a cat, do you need to apologize to your friends for your hairy home?
Most friends and family who visit pet owners at their home are not looking for an apology. They understand that pet owners deal with unwanted pet hair on an ongoing basis and are loathe to find any solution to keep their homes free from it. However, it can mean some people prefer to do their visiting at a hair-free location such the local Starbucks or a favorite restaurant in town.
A select few people will simply begin to refuse invitations to visit homes with pets who leave a trail of hair in their wake. Either way, no apology is necessary. Pet owners around the world can feel free to embrace their hairy house. As the old serenity prayer goes if you can’t change it, you might as well accept it.
How to Know if Your Friends and Family Find Your Hairy House a Problem
If you’re wondering where your family and friends sit on the hairy house conundrum, there are a few things you can look for to help determine how your guests feel about a visit to your home:
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Your guests arrive looking a tad on the slovenly side.
Many friends and family members visiting the homes of their pet-owning pals will start to turn up in far less than their best attire. This does not mean that that your friends have given up on taking care of their appearance or have no respect for you or your home.
Many people visiting hairy homes prefer to leave their best clothing in the closet since a social outing to your house leaves their fave outfits looking less than ready to impress. So, if your friends and family start showing up at your door in ripped and dirty yoga pants, old, faded hoodies, and jeans that have seen far better days; it’s not personal. It’s merely a means of avoiding a violation with the fashion police for sporting trendy attire that more closely resembles a porcupine.
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Your guests bring along an overnight bag.
If you open your front door to greet a pal only to discover them standing there with a small suitcase in hand, you don’t need to fear that your invitation to come over for an evening of “Netflix and chill” was misunderstood. Some friends and family adopt the defensive tactic of bringing along a “backup outfit” they can change into just before leaving your home to avoid the embarrassment of sporting a furry costume back to their abode.
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Your guests arrive with their own supply of duct tape and lint rollers.
Most people don’t want to end a friendship over a little bit of annoying pet hair. To this end, some of them get very creative about finding ways to maintain the friendship and their wardrobe at the same time.
Double sided tape, duct tape, and lint rollers are often used to help remove debris, lint, and yes, pet hair from clothing. If you find your guests have a ready supply of these items stockpiled in their handbag or backpack to whip out throughout the visit to keep the pet hair to a minimum, you’ll know your friends have noticed that you have a hairy house.
The bottom line is if you have pets, you will have a hairy house to a degree. You can’t fight it, so you might as well embrace it. Though at times, you will be tempted to apologize, there is really no need as family and true friends understand the challenges of sharing your heart and home with a furry companion that unfortunately happens to shed. And for those that love to complain, you can always keep a ready supply of duct tape of your own…for their mouths…oops, I mean, their pants. Alternatively, I am told that brilliantly patterned muumuus are also an excellent form of pet hair protection gear…
