Dirty Little Feet and Dread of the Spring Thaw

The first piece of "real" furniture my husband and I bought for ourselves was a beautiful down mix filled couch from Jordan's Furniture. It is large, super comfy, and almost $1000. It was a splurge, but when hubby fell asleep on it while I was investigating other options, I knew it was coming home with us. When selecting the fabric I wanted something that would be versatile enough to go with any of my eventual homes (we were renting at the time) and the color schemes I most often used. My top two choices were a red stripe that hubby vetoed because he said it looked like striped pajamas to him, and a cheery sunny yellow that we both loved. So yellow it was!

There it is in our last apartment. (And yes, if left to my own devices my whole house would look something like this- I love clutter! But hubby does not...) And I love my couch.

Okay, so I did realize pretty quickly that yellow, while lovely, was not exactly practical. Even without kids or pets of our own it needs weekly vacuuming, and hubby tends to spill when he eats, so a Tide pen lives in the side table. But I could deal with that.

BUT THEN! I bought a house. Which came with two cats. And this hasn't been a problem for the couch because when the walls were tan and blue I had a cover on the couch. And since I've uncovered it, it's been too cold for the cats to go outside.

But today the thaw that the rest of the country has been enjoying for a few days finally made it up here to New England, and the cats were THRILLED.
They went outside!
They frolicked and played!
They came inside and begged for lunch, at which point I wiped the mud from their tails and backs and- I thought- their feet. And then I sat down to check my email, and lovely affectionate Toby came over to hang out with me while he cleaned his feet- on the yellow couch!

BAH! A brisk buffing with a clean cloth did remove most of it, and my trusty Tide pen made a dent in the really dark parts, but if this keeps up I'm going to have a seriously dingy couch!

And what is going to happen when the spring thaw finally hits? Months of mud! I guess I'm going to have to dig out one of those slip covers again!

So what have I learned from all this? Patterned furniture is the way to go!