Pet owners around the world know all about finding pet fur everywhere -- all over the carpets, on the couch, stuck to your clothes, and even -- gulp -- in your food.

Pet-friendly lodgings have the responsibility of cleaning up after visiting pets. If you can, do your hosts a favor and remove any obvious fur... no one wants to see a film of hair (or worse, mats of fur) coating a room! A little extra attention will help to ensure that our pets continue to be welcomed as part of the family.

To minimize clean-up time when traveling with your pet, try the following:

• Invest in a car seat cover. Hair is very difficult to get out of the upholstery once it's embedded itself (and that doesn't take long!). There are many varieties of car seats to fit every budget. Some people prefer to use a blanket, pinned into place. Regardless of what you use, clean-up is fast and easy - just grab the cover and toss it into the washing machine!

• Bring doggy blankets, towels, or old sheets to cover the furniture. Some lodgings permit pets on the furniture, others don't. If yours does, place some blankets or towels on the furniture first before your furry friend decides to claim the space as his own.

  (Make sure that whatever you use isn't already covered in pet fur... otherwise you'll just be covering the furniture in fur even faster!)

• Bring your pet's favorite blanket or bedding. Many pets prefer to sleep on a familiar item anyways, and it will help to lessen the amount of clean-up you have to do.

• Bring a quality lint brush. Aside from freeing your own clothes from pet fur, you can use the lint brush on any obvious or stubborn mats of fur stuck to the carpet, to the couch, etc.

You are welcome to link directly to this page. Simply cut & paste the following code to your web page. If you prefer to reprint this article on your own site, please contact us to request permission.