Dog Piss

My dog pissed in the elevator. His name is JD. For reference, this is what he looks like:

We've been living in this apartment for two months now, and up until today, there were no "accidents." But this morning, as he and I were riding the elevator down for his morning walk, he just let loose. Luckily, he and I were alone in there when it started. But it got worse.

I begged and pleaded for him to stop. But he wouldn't listen. He looked so confused. How could I be angry? He clearly could not control himself. The poor little guy is always so well behaved. "Dammit, stop!" "Why won't you stop pissing?!?" But no, it just kept flowing.

The elevator stopped about halfway down. Two people were waiting to get in. But that wasn't going to happen. We were only a few seconds into our elevator ride by then, but the floor was covered in urine, and he was still going. I waved them off, apologetically. I said something stupid like, "Sorry, he just won't stop."

The doors closed, he finally stopped, and we reached the lobby. That's when my hero appeared. The woman who cleans the common areas of this huge building was vacuuming the lobby carpet. She is possibly the nicest person I've met here in Philadelphia and she barely speaks a word of English.

She always smiles anytime we pass each other in the building. And a few days ago, as I was getting into the elevator on my way upstairs, she was inside. She had been riding the elevator, cleaning the mirror-wall, scrubbing the elevator floor, polishing the stainless steel door. When I got in, she was hard at work, but she punched in my floor number without saying a word. I jokingly said something along the lines of, "Hey, you knew my floor. How'd you remember that?" She just smiled and nodded, muttering, "yes, yes." Anyway, she's a very nice lady.

So we hit the lobby level and the doors opened. I saw her wrapping up the extension cord to her vacuum. I tip-toed halfway out of the elevator, trying to avoid the piss, while making sure I kept my leg in there, so the door wouldn't shut. I tried to get her attention. "Ma'am." "Excuse me, miss."

She turned around and did that "who me?" gesture, pointing at herself. "Yes, ma'am, could you please help me?" She looked totally confused. She surely had no idea what I was trying to tell her, so she walked toward the elevator to find out what I wanted. She looked inside, and jumped to action.

She didn't give me a dirty look. She didn't hesitate. She didn't sigh. She just cleaned. It was like watching a expert chef chop vegetables. Like instinct just took over. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and some cleaning spray and dove right in. I was worried JD the dog had a little more in him, so I tried to tell her I was taking him outside. "I'm so sorry. I need to take him out. I'll be right back and I can help you." She kept cleaning, looked up at me with a smile and said "It's okay." The smile said a thousand words. It was the kind of smile you give when you want someone to know you sympathize with them. It was a smile of understanding.

So I took the dog out, and rushed right back. It was surely less than a minute, but by the time we were back in the lobby, the cleaning was complete. She had soaked up the piss, mopped up the elevator floor, then cleaned it with some sort of spray cleaner.

I was so grateful. I just kept saying "thank you" and "I'm sorry" over and over. And again, she said, "it's okay."

I told you. She is the nicest person I've met in Philly.

I considered trying to repay her for her help. I could give her money, but I don't want to insult her. She seemed happy to help, with no expectation of reward. I'm not sure if I should do anything different. I will definitely continue to nod and smile when I see her. What else could I do?

Oh yeah, just so you know, my dog really is very well behaved. He simply drank too much water or something. I'm sure of it.