“I make excuses to avoid visiting my friend, her house smells like cats.”

Anyone who has a pet, whether it’s a dog, cat, rabbit or bird, knows that sometimes their home can become a bit musty. The annoying thing is that often times, as an owner, you can become “nose blind” to the smell and not even realize that your home has a bad smell.

While most of us would probably avoid a smelly place, one woman revealed how she struggled to maintain a friendship after going to her house and becoming “overwhelmed” by cat smell.

The 37-year-old took to Reddit to share her complaint and find out how best to handle the topic: “Earlier this year I met a woman I enjoy being friends with, we’ll call her Dolly*. We spent a long weekend together and it was great getting to know each other.” .

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“Unfortunately, I don’t enjoy spending time with Dolly at her house, I’ve done it twice now. Her house smells like cat/kitty litter/ammonia and there’s cat fur in almost everything. On a scale of 1 to 10, the smell in Dolly’s house was “About five the first time and seven the second time. Both times the windows were open.”

The woman revealed that she usually tries to invite Dolly to her house but Dolly likes to be at home because of her cats. She added that she has been using her sensitivity as an excuse the past few times, but she feels bad when she is lied to.

Curious to know how others would handle the situation, she asked for advice on what to do next and whether she should tell her directly that her house smelled like cats. Animal lovers quickly flooded the post with suggestions on how to move forward, with one person writing: “Honestly I’ll keep pointing out the allergies.” With another person agreeing, adding: “Same thing. Unless I was asked directly or I thought there was a real danger, I don’t think I could tell anyone that their house smelled bad.

But another user wrote: “I personally will tell her. I believe that avoiding something like this is actually not nice. What if it affects her ability to make other friends? A nice way to do this is, “Hey, I wanted to be honest with you – I’m allergic to your cats so I can’t come over there all the time, but the other reason is because I often smell a very strong odor from them.” Cat urine in your house is like ammonia, and I don’t enjoy being around it. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings. I just wanted to let you know in case you didn’t realize how strong it smells. “You don’t need to tell her to do anything, babysit her, or make suggestions unless she asks. Just tell her nicely.”

A third person agreed, adding: “Appreciate it. My cat had an accident in my car on the way from the vet about a month ago. I’ve cleaned the seat about 30 times. Finally had to ask a friend if he could smell anything. I was worried “So much so that I went blind. It turned out to smell good, thank goodness.”

*Dolly’s name has been changed for the purpose of this article.

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