wrote:
Let me begin by telling you that I am not an allergy sufferer;
however,
I have a new stepdaughter who has terrible allergies to what appears
to
be everything under the sun. Her father, my husband, has custody over

the girl and her brother for a two-week long period during the
spring.
Naturally, he wants his children to come to our house, which includes
as
its residents a Persian feline (who will be vacationing at my
friend's
home for the length of the girl's stay) and an admittedly untidy
woman.
Of course, I plan on cleaning top to bottom before the girl arrives.
It
may take some time, as the cat has lived here a while and has laid
claim
to all available surfaces as her personal shedding grounds. I'll also

stock the kitchen with enough ice cream and Benadryl to keep my
stepdaughter content for her next fifty visits. Any other advice for
temporarily allergy-proofing my home?

The only hint I have is to remove the cat and clean the house as far in
advance of the girl's stay as humanly possible. I have cat allergies
(fortunately not severe, but a pain in the neck) and I have more
problem at the houses of my tidy friends with cats than I do at the
houses of my messy friends. This is because my tidy friends, in an
attempt to be considerate, will vacuum the place right before I arrive,
which (as far as I can tell) only serves to throw huge amounts of cat
dander up into the air where it's convenient for me to inhale it. My
messy friends just leave it where it lies, and it's actually less of a
problem for me then. If you can clean up well in advance of her visit,
it may give the resulting dust time to settle back down. If you can
start forbidding the cat access *now* to the room where your
stepdaughter is going to sleep that will help a bit too. Freshly
launder any blankets, etc. the cat may have slept on in hot water.

The truth is, though... you're not going to be able to de-cat the house
completely, so you will just have to help her manage the symptoms. I
assume that if you're doing this at all you're not expecting the
results to be life-threatening!

Beth