Dealing with Cat Pee

My wife said I should put this up because after my own extensive web search I couldn't find a definitive way to eliminate the odor of cat pee from our rug.

The problem . . . we got a new rug for our dining room and our oldest cat decided to use it as her liter box.  It is a constant battle with this cat.  She can use a liter box, it just has to be pristine for her to go into it.  Meanwhile our other cat will use whatever liter box he is closest to meaning that one of the three boxes we have will likely have something in it.

Liter box issues aside she chose this new rug.  Generally we spot clean once we feel a wet spot or smell something.  The rug is such that we cannot see when or where she went.  As I read online if you smell it then it has already dried and is already trapped within the fabric.

People suggested Nature's Miracle which is great, but it's costly and I've found it to only work when you can soak something for a long time.  It also needs to be treated repeatedly.

I learned the trick of using vinegar in our laundry to kill mildew smells.  It works wonders on towels.  It has gotten to the point where I use a little cup of vinegar in each load just because.  I figured if it works so well for this then maybe it would be good for the cat smell.
Online people said it has worked, others said it did nothing.  I decided to go with my gut and give it a try.  Here's what I did.

First I used my Bissell steam cleaner on the rug using the Bissell cleaning product made for animal smells.  I let the rug dry and it still had a smell.  That's when I poured vinegar all over the place.  I hit every spot I thought she used.  I went through a gallon of white vinegar in no time.  I let it dry and though someone on the Internet said vinegar dries leaving no smell I found that not to be true.  I did another Bissell steam clean treatment and let it dry.  There was a slight pee smell and a faint vinegar smell.  Next I poured Arm & Hammer Carpet Deodorizer made for pets over the rug and let it sit for a few days.  One nice thing I noticed was that with all the cleaning this rug got the cat wanted nothing to do with it.  So maybe she'll learn that peeing on my rug is a bad idea.

After a few days with the Arm & Hammer deodorizer I vacuumed it up and now there is no pet smell, no vinegar smell, and a wonderfully cleaned rug.

It took a lot, but it worked and I didn't go crazy with cleaning products or calling in an outside company to do the job.  I also didn't have to replace the rug.

As I come across more little ideas like this I will share them.  Maybe someone will find them useful.