But, I came home from a surprise hair appointment (they baby had a doctors appt at 12:30, so I got out Early!) to a mess of trash all over the living room floor. We are slowly working on letting the dog out of his crate while we are not home, and he was only out for about an hour. He's gone for 3 before with no destruction. Not today. No big deal, though, normally. Swat him across the nose, pick up the trash, drag dog to trash can, swat nose again to show him he's not allowed...except for the liquid ink pen he chewed up.
Big, blue stain in the middle of the carpet, and about twenty small dots around the apartment. He apparently got it on his paw, then tracked it everywhere he walked. I forgot to take a picture of the original stain. Yay. I mean, really. Yay. So I did out my cleaning manual: the Queen of Clean. The Queen says for ink stains on carpet, blot with rubbing alcohol. I grab my bottle and realize, I'm gonna need to go to the store. I don't have enough. But I begin, and some of the stain is coming up, but it's leaving a pink stain behind. Uh,oh. So, I'm off to the store to buy more. I also picked up more vinegar and club soda, other Queen of Clean staples, used for all sorts of goody cleaning.
The rubbing alcohol does remove the blue, but there's a horrible pink stain remaining. I try the club soda. Ah...success. But the pink remains. More blue comes up, I can see it on my "cleaning towels", but the pink...is glaring. I move to the small dots, and the club soda bubbles up the stain on all of those, leaving a tiny pink on only a few. And now I return to the big one.
Back and forth with the rubbing alcohol and the club soda, still removing blue, but the pink remains. Argh!! We're moving in a few months. This stain will mean we have to replace the carpet! Not an option! Back to the Queen; she suggests if the stain remains, try your carpet cleaner or basic shaving cream (which I actually have right now because I'm making discovery bottles for the baby to play with). Surprisingly, even though the foam never turns colors, I can tell the stain is lightening. However, I have been working on this for an hour now, my fingers are blue, 3 full size towels are wet, and I think I'm getting a small buzz from smelling the rubbing alcohol. Hmmm...maybe it's time to take a break, let the carpet dry, and see if anyone has ANY ideas.
So any ideas? This is what remains of the ink. Short of pouring bleach on the tan carpet, I can't think of anything that will definitely get rid of the pink, or even if bleach would work. I know I would have a perfectly white spot on the carpet around the stain, but that doesn't help either. Now I have a new UFO. Getting rid of this dang stain!
