Cat Hair and Ice Stairs…Yep, Just One of Those Days

Hey y’all! This is just a post to let you know, when you have “one of those days”, you’re not alone!

I heard my dog making noise downstairs very early this morning while it was still almost dark outside. (He’s almost 18 years old so he’s not able to climb the stairs.) In an attempt to quiet him so the rest of the house could sleep, I decided to go downstairs…faster than I’d planned.

(Side note: Make sure to vacuum carpeted stairs OFTEN, especially if you have indoor pets. You’ll soon hear why…)

I carefully approached the stairs, knowing I hadn’t quite gotten the sleep needed yet. I undid the net-gate I have across the top of the stairs, put there so no one will fall down them if they’re half-asleep or sleep-walking…which my Little Blessing used to do when little. I carefully latched it again, then turned and grabbed the handrail. (I was doing everything right.)

With my hand on the rail, I began my descent. First step, second step, third…!!! Even though I was barefoot (for better traction on the very shallow carpeted stairs), it was like I stepped on ice but without the cold. BAM!!!

Ice? On the Stairs??

As my foot set down on the stair, it hit the “ice” and jetted out from under me. I went straight down, hard, on the edge of that stair. It felt like I went down the stairs faster than a bobsled down a steep ice-slicked shoot!

As my backside and legs became my indoor sled, my oh so comfortable slippery soft pajama pants only accelerate the flight!

I went from the third stair from the top to three stairs from the bottom in what seemed like a split second…hand still on the rail, waking everyone in the house. I sat there, announced “I’m ok!”, and then sat in stunned silence as I considered the rapid events that had just taken place.

When all forward motion stopped, and shock subsided a bit, I assessed and analyzed, almost as rapidly as my descent had been.

What? How? Why?!

I recalled that I had my hand on the rail so why couldn’t I right myself? My shoulder was still recovering from an earlier injury so I thought maybe that’s why I was powerless to stop my sudden accelerating flight. I could tell I had wrenched it again, and also strained my hand in the struggle to stay upright and alive, but neither seemed to be hurt too badly.

The soreness of my heel triggered the recollection that I had tried to stop myself with the heels of my feet, but they had absolutely no traction.

From the soreness of my other hand and wrist, I vaguely remembered I put that hand down as I tried to support my weight, cushion my fall, and stop the forward motion, but it too had no traction.

Thankfully…

Thankfully I was able to assess nothing was broken, and thankfully the greatest impact was on the thickest part of my Gluteus Maximus.

I could see in my mind how close I’d come to a much more horrible outcome, and although filled with questions, confusion, and questions to God of “why?”, I also thanked God that He had saved and preserved my life and my now sore and certainly bruised body.

What Was the “Ice”?

As I went back upstairs (after having tended my dear old friend and longtime canine companion), I saw a clump of fur that looked as though it had been lifted from that third stair from the top, and then I realized…

We have a cat that has “minimal” shedding and rarely coughs up hairballs, so I didn’t even think about cat-shed build up on the carpeted stairs that he always runs up and down. I vacuum the stairs every now and then, but not every time I vacuum the rugs and floors. I then resolved to vacuum them after everyone was able to get a little more sleep.

When I later got the vacuum and THOROUGHLY vacuumed the stairs, I was SHOCKED at how much silky slippery cat fur had accumulated on the carpeted stairs! The cat fur had created the “ice”.

Again I thanked God for sparing us from how horribly wrong things could have turned out, and I resolved to vacuum the stairs much more frequently!

Moral to the Story?

You can do everything right and still have things go wrong. Be thankful for your blessings, even when they may be partly in disguise…and vacuum those “icy” stairs!!! 😁