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Cat urine and coins

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Street Pattern, Jul 28, 2015.

  1. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    According to the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), there's a region of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey which has the usage "meaner than cat shit."

    Cat feces is admittedly pretty unpleasant stuff, but for indoor cat owners who maintain litterboxes and clean up accidents, the little turds are dessicated by the cat litter and usually generate little odor.

    What's meaner than cat shit? Cat piss.

    Cat urine is almost odorless when fresh, but it quickly becomes rancid, and creates a massive stink that is impossible to ignore. It is generated in sufficient quantities to overwhelm sections of a litter box, which remain moist and odor-generating. Even if you clean the litter box frequently, you will need a tool like a shovel to dig out the urine-saturated parts.

    From time to time, our cats choose a random spot on the concrete basement floor, and begin peeing there. This quickly becomes a crisis.

    When cleaning up such a spot, part of the task is to get rid of any items that got wet. Luggage, papers, toys, whatever, are irrevocably damaged and must be discarded.

    But what about coins? Sometimes amid the mess, I find a coin on the floor, usually a penny.

    My approach is to clean off the coin and return it to circulation. Most people would probably throw it in the trash.

    Admittedly, I'm a kind of coin fetishist. To me, every coin is inherently worthwhile regardless of its monetary value. I wash cat urine off a penny even though my time and labor in doing so are worth considerably more than one cent.

    Indeed, I would wash off a Mexican one centavo coin, with a value (I just checked) of about 1/16 of a U.S. cent. Perhaps fortunately, we don't have Mexican coins lying around our house.

    Back when the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin came out, there were complaints that it looked too much like a quarter. Some wag wrote a column about seeing a coin on the sidewalk and needing to figure out if it was worth the effort to stop, lean over, and pick it up. A dollar coin would be worth it, he thought, but not a quarter.

    Obviously, there are limits, but let's stick to the cat urine example.

    Let's say you're cleaning up rancid cat urine and sawdust from the basement floor, dumping the detritus into a trash bag. You see a penny. Do you retrieve it? You probably wouldn't.

    What about a nickel? A quarter? A silver dollar?

    In round numbers (assuming a 52x40 or 2080 hour work year), my salary comes to $50 per hour. Presumably that means my time is worth about 83 cents per minute, or about one and a third cents per second. Under those assumptions, it's not worthwhile to spend even a second to rescue a penny, but a pretty good deal to spend a minute on picking up and cleaning a dollar coin.

    But is that even the relevant criteria? My salary is calculated by the year, and it's not affected by how much time I work. It's not like I could take any random idle hour and turn it into $50.

    What goes through your mind when you see a dirty coin on the ground?
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2015
  2. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    A coin, I pick it up...air kiss it...then it goes in my pocket...and later it goes into the coin jar. (unless it's rare)
    Not superstitious...it's just fun.

    If it's in a nasty area, nah...not worth it.
    but you can still easily grab it if you want with a disposable Kleenex or paper towel and put it in a dish of soapy water...clean it. (then some vinegar & salt to shine it)

    Really, people are way too sensitive to what was something fairly common way back when (or even now in some situations...)
    The stuff isn't going to kill ya...just take some precautions. (no worse than dog poo or a dirty diaper...geez)
     
    • Like Like x 1
  3. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    Usually I ignore them. Sometimes if it's a quarter or half-dollar or silver dollar, I pick it up, then usually it goes into the tzedakah box (charity collection). And sometimes if a penny is lying face down, and I can see it has the old wheat back, I sometimes pick it up to check the date and mint mark, because I tend to think WWII pennies are cool, and will sometimes save them for a while.

    I confess, if a coin were lying in piss of any animal or human, I would not pick it up unless it were solid gold.
     
  4. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    I had a friend that amused himself by dropping small coins in urinals at bars and then checking to see if they had been retrieved through the night. They almost always were.
     
  5. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    Growing up on a farm, I have a pretty high yuck threshold and a good immune system, so if I find a coin on the floor or ground I just pick it up and put it in my purse or pocket.
    The dirtiest coins I get come from where they end up in a cup holder in my car, mired in spilled soda, coffee, ice cream, etc. There will be a small handful, a few of which I sometimes have to pry out with a fingernail. I just toss them in the kitchen sink and let them soak. Then they go in a mason jar with the rest of my excess pocket change. When it gets full, I take it to the bank and deposit "one quart -- coins".


    Kitty is usually pretty good about using the litter box (if I'm pretty good about keeping it clean);) but every now and then will carry some small object (she likes the staple remover from my desk) and bury it in the litter. My staple remover has been several times through the dishwasher.

    As far as cost/benefit analysis -- I do lots of things that aren't worth my time.:) I don't care.
    Coins, by the way, even covered with kitty urine, are probably not as unsanitary as the paper money we handle without a second thought.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  6. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    As @Lindy pointed out, money is dirty, plain and simple, so yes, I pick up coins. I wash my hands a lot, so I don't really worry about it.
     
  7. Stan

    Stan Resident Dumbass

    Location:
    Colorado
    My hands unplug stuffed up toilets, change dirty diapers, and pick up Molly piles ... dirty coins don't scare me. I just wash my hands frequently.

    I'd leave one in the urinal.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  8. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Pennies in general? It depends on my mood, and if the penny is face-up (good luck, supposedly).

    In cat piss? No.