“It’s Urgent And Possibly Life Threatening”: 15 Concerning Smells That You Should Never Ignore

4.

“Cat piss. I toured a house that was for rent, but it smelled like cat pee so I turned it down. I was weirdly sick for ten days afterward. I finally mentioned it to a doctor, who brought in their security guy (off-duty police officer.) It turns out that cooking meth smells like cat piss, and I had inhaled some pretty nasty chemicals. I gave the officer the address and they were going to investigate. All I know from there is that they called the doctor and confirmed the meth residue. She was told they would quarantine the building.”

—TruCelt

“Cat piss smell can also be bats. We were renting a place once and I noticed a strong smell of cat piss at the top of the stairs right under the hatch to the loft. Turns out, we had a colony of bats roosting in the attic. I counted over 300 bats leaving at one point. And they’re also protected, meaning you can’t remove them.

We contacted the letting agency and when the bats moved out for the year, the letting agency sent round ‘their guy’ to plug the holes where the bats could get in using expanding foam. So the bats got back in the next year. But not my house, not my problem.”

—kolloth