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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think dog/cat owning smokers are delusional?

83 replies

lightbulbsarehot · 31/01/2015 07:54

"My house doesn't smell of dog and I only smoke at the window/door/up the chimney so it doesn't smell"

YES IT DOES!

Same with some cats - especially litter trays.

Just because you are used to the smell, doesn't mean it doesn't smell. Even if you spray everything in fabreeze it just smells like fabreeze with a hint of dog.

OP posts:

SkilledatSkiving · 31/01/2015 10:16

I have a non shiny coated dog, he really doesn't smell. Unless he farts.

My colleague has a son that smokes. He does it outside on the patio, but honestly, their house always stinks of stale smoke, from his breath, I guess.

gamerchick · 31/01/2015 10:42

It is indeed usual

I have to admit I was paranoid to buggery when this cat came to live here about smell. But it's been fine. The smell of teenagers and their trainers are much worse. Do we look forward to a thread about how you can tell a house with teenagers in it? It would make a nice change

DropYourSword · 31/01/2015 10:45

My dog doesn't smoke. She's allergic to tobacco.

elfycat · 31/01/2015 10:49

I don't smoke, but do have cats. I don't think my house smells of them as people have commented with surprise when the cats appear about the lack of smell.

Mind you sun-warmed cat fur is one of my favourite smells.

However I have only just about fully trained DD1 so some bits of the house smell slightly of human wee. I must clean the carpets on the next breezy, sunny day.

code · 31/01/2015 10:49

Lol at Sword. My cats don't smell but DH does. Shall I rehome him?

EdSheeran · 31/01/2015 10:52

All homes and people have a smell.

DropYourSword · 31/01/2015 10:52

Not even joking code! Had to get her allergy tested. She's allergic to about 75 things all told, including a lot of plants I've never heard of, fleas and mangoes! I have no idea why they tested for tobacco! How would she light up with no opposable thumbs?

mypoosmellsofroses · 31/01/2015 11:00

Smokers here, plus a dog and a teenage boy. Teenage boys win on the stinky front hands down, when his older brother is here, it's worse. It's either a sort of musty fug of foot and god knows what, or the dreaded Lynx cloud.

SkilledatSkiving · 31/01/2015 11:12

Yy, teenage boy aroma.

Mine has a bedroom that is over insulated & under ventilated plus a hamster. The smell that comes from his room is quite something.

CupidStuntSurvivor · 31/01/2015 11:18

Any reason this is specifically pet owners and smokers? Unclean people's homes smell. When it's too cold to ventilate my home properly and my 9mo DD does a nappy cracking poo, it lingers a lot. Her bedroom smells very much of her, mine smells of me. The kitchen more often than not smells of food cooking but occasionally smells like bin because the kitchen is tiny.

Are you saying that people regularly deny smells exist or is this just that as you find pet and smoke smells particularly unpleasant, you fancy having a moan about pet owners and smokers?

Micah · 31/01/2015 11:27

Don't you know we are all supposed to be so hygenically clean these days that no smell ever troubles our precious noses.

Except for artificial air "fresheners", very strong fabric conditioner and perfumes (all of which I dislike).

See all threads about how often you shower/wash towels/wash your wheely bin.

Smells are normal :)

code · 31/01/2015 11:41

Poor dog sword agree she'd struggle with a fag but she might manage a bong.

elfycat · 31/01/2015 11:52

I had neighbours complain about the smell of wood smoke. The woodburner is a clean air act, defra approved, reburner to minimise pollution. Ironically the complainer is a smoker.

Looking at ways to minimise discomfort to my neighbours I googled for a while. Apparently because of the over-perfumed world we live in 'natural' smells are becoming more offensive. We react to the natural smells because that's what the sense of smell if for (in part) to trigger alarm. So smoke fire or cigarette = fire danger. Animal smells, especially predators = danger.

Human smells are also there for a reason, pheromones to attract a mate, baby poo smells to alert the need for cleaning, ill child smell to alert parents (not everyone gets this but I do), dodgy teenager smell, possibly to help parent separate emotionally from the stinky creature and promote its independence in the world by shoving it out the door/cave.

And then we cover it all with detergent, scented soap, those J&J babywipes that can clean biro off a leather sofa, deodorants, odour eaters, room scents masquerading as twiggy-shit etc. and we learn to like those scents and abhor the other.

tarashill · 31/01/2015 11:52

I used to have a neighbour who neither smoked nor had a cat or dog but her house smelt awful. She only had to open the front door and you could smell it. She just wasn't a clean person. On the other hand I've been in many a house which has a dog or a cat and I couldn't smell anything. There are certain breeds though that smell more than others. I do agree though about smokers houses. It seems to linger. It wouldn't stop me visiting though. I'm a tolerant kind of person.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/01/2015 12:01

That's funny, elfycat, makes perfect sense.

I don't know why people bother to come on to complain about the subject of whatever the OP is moaning about. MN is now one big moaning morass of people who have nothing better to do at the time of posting. I don't like the fake/faux-helpless threads. Everybody moans.

MehsMum · 31/01/2015 12:02

dodgy teenager smell, possibly to help parent separate emotionally from the stinky creature
Yes!

Our house smells of of different things at different times: wet dog sometimes, sometimes the wood burner smokes a bit into a room when its being lit, and sometimes it HONGS of curry.

But so long as it doesn't smell nasty (unwashed dog, for example), and smells like home, I'm happy.

And it costs of bloody fortune to heat, and rarely gets really warm in the winter, so I am NOT opening all the windows for half an hour to please fussy visitors, unless it's warmer outside than in.

KingJoffreyObviouslyWatchesHol · 31/01/2015 12:05

MiL smokes.

She smokes outside when she's here but the house still reeks of it and it takes ages to get rid of the smell once she's gone.

She also hangs her smelly coat that she's been smoking in next to mine. Is that a passive aggressive not liking me thing? I've always wondered.

Eustasiavye · 31/01/2015 13:02

Oh yes to the teenage boy stink.

My mum stinks of smoke she thinks spraying herself in lashings of perfume gets rid of it.

FightOrFlight · 31/01/2015 13:13

Friend 1 with large alsation that sheds a lot and a carpeted house - house smells of dog.

Friend 2 with large collie cross and wooden floors in the house - can't smell the dog at all.

Cooking smells can be awful. When my Dad has been cooking cauliflower cheese it smells like an entire army has been farting in the house.

ifgrandmahadawilly · 31/01/2015 15:14

I would prefer any of these smells to the overpowering, chemical smell of air fresheners and fabric softeners. Natural smells can be wonderfully evocative and don't tend to make my eyes sting, throat itch or trigger my migraines (with the exception of eucalyptus).

I honestly have no idea what a cat smells like though? Cat letter smell, yes - Flea collar smell - yes - but do cats really have an innate smell?

If you want to criticise pet owners for being delusional about how much their animals smell - ferret owners are the ones to watch! I'm a ferret owner myself and can't believe how many people keep their pet ferrets in doors, claiming that they don't smell. They do. It's not a bad smell but it's very distinctive.

ILovePud · 31/01/2015 15:36

Delusional is a bit harsh OP, I think it's just like how you can't smell your own perfume after a while you acclimatise to the smell of your pet or fags. I don't care if my house smells doggy anyway, my lovely dog brings so much pleasure into my life she's worth it.

MalletsMallet · 31/01/2015 16:02

My cats breath smells like rotten fish but I still love sniffing it and try to stick my nose in their mouths when they yawn

JohnCusacksWife · 31/01/2015 16:05

I can smell a smokers house as soon as I go through the front door. There's no disguising that smell.

But not all dogs smell. I have friends who have dogs and their houses definitely don't smell doggy. Can't comment on cats as I don't know anyone with one.

BumpAndGrind · 31/01/2015 16:06

I opened this thinking it was going to be a thread about smoking around pets, like smoking around children...

Whippet81 · 31/01/2015 17:46

BumpandGrind me too! Funnily enough I was at hospital the other day and there was an anti-smoking board and it was saying how much more likely cats and dogs owned by smokers are to die of cancer. Never saw that angle used before!

I have a greyhound - he doesn't particularly smell (although he can clear a room with his wind) but I wouldn't care anyway - I love him and would rather have him lying next to me trumping away that a miserable human that moans about other people

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