Giveaway: Aussan Natural Pet Care
When I was three, my mother learned the hard way that her kid had sensitive skin. They were out of our regular laundry detergent at the store, so she brought home some Tide, that chemical cornucopia in the blaring orange box. She did 5 loads of laundry and bundled me into my winter snowsuit. 5 minutes later, she found me wiggling on the floor like a caterpillar trying to escape the chrysalis. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“ITCHY!!” I wailed. So she unwrapped me like a teeny angry mummy, revealing me covered from neck to ankle in an angry red rash. To this day, I can’t walk down the laundry aisle without holding my breath.
Needless to say, I am very sensitive to chemicals. I don’t like harsh synthetic scents, overpowering cleansers, or heavy duty oxidants. I try to use natural cleaners wherever possible, because they don’t seem to cause as much collateral damage to the family.
I realized shortly after bringing my first adopted dog home that I needed to try and accord the pets the same respect as I did myself. If a whiff of Windex in enough to send my olfactory receptors into a tizzy, imagine what it must do to a dog? Fortunately, there is an ever growing number of companies who agree and are making products that are safer for everyone. They work just as well, they smell better, and I’m not as worried about anyone burning a hole in their esophagus if they happen to lick the floor afterwards.
I recently received a set of cleaners from the Aussan Natural Pet Care line, and I’m happy to have them in the house. Here’s all the garbage they DON’T have:
alcohol, ammonia, artificial fragrance, bleach, chlorine, formaldehyde, fumes, dye, phtalate, petrochemicals, phosphate, sodium lauryl sulfate
That makes me happy.
The Aussan pet care line consists of 4 products:
- An all purpose pet cleaner
- 3 different odor eliminators: Dog Odor Eliminator, Cat Odor Eliminator, Small Pet Odor Eliminator
Since you all remember the bobcat incident from last week, I’ll tell you that as predicted, Apollo went into a tizzy later that day and sprayed the front door (though in this case, I’ll give him a pass.) I’ve been using straight vinegar and water to clean, but this time around I used the Aussan All Purpose Pet cleaner and followed that up with the Cat Odor Eliminator.
The cleaner has a very mild herbal smell- it contains citric fruit extract and lemongrass oil, which is great for those who recall that cats find those smells slightly aversive, making it a mild deterrent. Score!
The Odor Eliminator (all three version smell the same) contains eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, and vanilla bean oil, which gives it a very nice, calming smell. I don’t know how to explain the difference between a natural herbal smell and a chemical-ly one, but if you’re sensitive to smells you know exactly what I mean. I sat there and huffed the stuff with my nose to the bottle, which for the record I have never once in my life managed to do without passing out with a grocery store cleaner.
(I even used it on my yoga mat, which is high praise considering I spend an hour at a go with my face pressed to it. If only I could surreptitiously bring it and spray it on that hairy old guy who’s always sweating in the corner.)
And the end result: No cat pee smell. It worked very well. And as far as I know Apollo has yet to re-mark. Halle-frickin-lujah!
Aussan is providing a giveaway to you guys as well. If you’d like to try out the line, leave a comment below with which product from the Pet Care line you’d like to try, and who is the stinky problem-maker. I’ll pick one person at random to receive the product of choice! Contest open until April 11, midnight PST.
*Remember my internet will be spotty while I’m in Peru, so there is a likelihood that the winner won’t be chosen until after Easter. But it’ll be worth the wait!
