"The Cat in The Hat Comes Back"

A big long pink cat ring!
It looked like pink ink!
And I said,
"Will this ever come off? I don't think!"

"Have no fear of that ring,"
Laughed the Cat in the Hat.
"Why, I can take cat rings
Off tubs. Just like that!"

Do you know how he did it?
WITH MOTHER'S WHITE DRESS!
Now the tub was all clean,
But her dress was a mess!

Then Sally looked in.
Sally saw the dress, too!
And Sally and I
Did not know what to do.
We should work in the snow.
But that dress! What a spot!
"It may never come off!"
Sally said. "It may not!"

But the cat laughed, "Ho! Ho!"
I can make the spot go.
The way I take spots off a dress
Is just so!"

"See here!" laughed the cat.
"It is not hard at all.
The thing that takes spots
Off a dress is a wall!
Then we saw the cat wipe
The spot off the dress.
Now the dress was all clean.
But the wall! What a mess!


I knew when my roommate made the tub pink the other day that it triggered something in my childhood memories. Something much more pleasant than the clogged pink puddle of hair dye in our tub that would soon become a pink ring.

We had been having bathtub draining issues for weeks. I wanted to call the maintenance company but she has the contraband cat in the apartment so doesn't like to call them. "It happened every couple months with my previous roommate, too," she said, "We just bought some of the drain clearing liquid stuff and it would go away." I am irritated that I have to deal with this since it is part of the reason that I enjoy renting--having someone else come fix all this stuff.

But after one particularly awful morning shower with water up to my ankles and my shaving cream sloshing around in little islands on top of the water, I'd had enough.

This was especially bothersome because I usually take great pleasure in my showers. It is one of the few truely peaceful times of my day. With warm water running over me and that feeling of clean and fresh. And sometimes I even like to sing in the shower. I like the steam; I like the smells; I like the clean; I like the white quiet noises drowning everything else out.

I do not like the water up to my ankles with floating shaving cream islands. "I do not like it, Sam I Am!" I'd had enough.

That day I stopped on my way home to get some liquid plumber. When I got home, I found that P. had already purchased some other sort of drain unclogger too. I was not about to deal with it further than that so I just left the bottle in the bathroom. Not angrily, just didn't want to mess with the mess.

And the mess became, worse, just like in "The Cat and the Hat Comes Back," Oh what a mess!

P. has red dyed hair and she choose that night, with the tub clogged, to redo the dye. This is normally a very messy process for her and the dye ends up making the bathroom look like a murder scene (because it gets everywhere and she doesn't wipe it up), but this time was the worse.

I guess she rinses the dye out into the tub--the now clogged tub--the now moved beyond slow draining to completely clogged tub. Clogged tub full of blood looking pink hair dye stuff just sitting there.

I'm annoyed but don't say much. She pours first her bottle of stuff in the tub (three times already the amount that is supposed to work). Nothing.

Then she pour half of the bottle I bought. Nothing.

Then the other half. Nothing.

I go to bed that night and there is still a five inch puddle of "blood" in the tub. I am imagining cold red water in the morning and pink feet up to my ankles. I'll have to wear shoes that don't show any of my feet. No, I decide I will go shower at the gym. That is a pain, but so are cold red feet. Ugh.

But, I wake up in the morning and the puddle is gone. Left in it's wake is a ring...you guessed it...a pink ring.

"A big long pink cat ring!
It looked like pink ink!
And I said,
"Will this ever come off? I don't think!"