Kemosabe Keeps It Clean (with Safe Household Cleaners)

Okay, so I like to swim in ponds and creeks and I like to roll in leaves, dirt, manure, and partially decayed carcasses. Crockett, who has figured out how to open a screen door, lets me inside where I proceed to track my muddy paws, drop leaves, and bring my unique dead-animal smell into the house.

Humans have no sense of humor.

I really don’t mind getting a bath. I particularly enjoy going to the Dog Spa in Wellington and getting first class spa treatments including a hot oil conditioner. But at the farm, it’s a little more rustic: garden hose or bathtub. Not sure who gets more wet…me or the human.

The shampoo wars:
I have stopped counting how many brands of dog shampoo my human has experimented with: oatmeal, tea tree, with lavender, with peppermint, with aloe, with baking soda, and medicated. She has bathed us in horse shampoos, human shampoos, Ivory liquid, and one of her homemade concoctions whose recipe I am happy to say has been lost in the annals of the Oops Files.

Recently she has been up in arms over chemicals in shampoos, chemicals in household cleaners, and bath and beauty products. “I don’t want this stuff going on my dogs, my horses, myself, or in the environment,” she says.

Household cleaners:
The first chemicals to be barred were the cleaning chemicals: the chlorox spray cleaner, a foul-smelling cleaner called Pine Sol, plus Comet and Lysol wipes. My human tried several non-chemical brands from the health food store, and felt good about using them, but not completely satisfied with how well they cleaned. Personally I appreciated that they didn’t smell like Pine Sol or Lysol: those things are nasty.

Wellington Revelation:
In Florida this winter, our human met with the owner of a company called WarHorse that makes chemically free shampoo, tack cleaner, and household cleaners. The first victim of this science experiment was Yoda, the terrier. After her bath in War Horse, she sidled up to me in her dominatrix way, and hey, she smelled good. And her hair wasn’t so gnarly and stinky.

My human started spraying stuff with the WarHorse cleaner Pure Gold…sinks, tile, kitchen counters, appliances and saying things like: “aaaah” and “wow.”

When we got back to Virginia, she promptly took the WarHorse Pure Gold cleaner out to the barn and cleaned buckets with it. Again the sounds coming out of her mouth were: “aaaah” and “wow”, and “I love this”. She cleaned the wood floors in the house, the bathrooms, the kitchen; all the time smiling and “aaahing”.

The True Test:
Yet the true test of our new chemically free environment at the farm, is being bathed. I dutifully submitted to standing still, and then the warm water flowed over me, and then I smelled the shampoo, and then I felt the shampoo on my skin: soothing not irritating. All I heard from my human was: “this feels so good on my hands”.

I have to admit, I looked awesome after brushing and drying; really shiny coat, lustrous, and soft. I felt like I had just had a hot oil treatment but it was the WarHorse shampoo. According to my human it is made with raw, expeller pressed sunflower oil that is not only verified non GMO it is also free of additives and herbicides including Roundup.

The canary in the coal mine:
We animals having been trying to tell you humans that all these chemicals from household cleaners to pesticides and lawn sprays are affecting us. Our food chain is affected by high level of herbicides, as well as the chemical ingredients marketed as fertilizer. Cancer takes the lives of 1 of every 2 dogs. Allergies in dogs and horses have escalated.
We are telling you that our body systems not only need real food, we need not to be breathing the toxic cocktails, or walking in grasses and pastures laced with herbicides. Why can’t a lawn where I walk and play have some dandelions? Why is a plant that has benefits for the liver, and greets me each day with a bright yellow head looking like a happy little sun need to be eradicated?

Please bring back a safe environment for all of us.