Lynn Mc. wrote: >Her heart murmur is about a three on a scale of six, with no heart disease >symptoms present (the second vet thinks she had a separate infection which >only led to the diagnosis of heart murmur). Hmmm. This is interesting to me as our old girl was diagnosed with a heart murmur too. Can something secondary, like an infection rather than heart problems, cause a heart murmur?? Do they ever fix themselves? Lynn Mc. also wrote: >We have seven ferrets and are refinishing an oak floor. We want to use >the strongest finish available so as to absolutely (if possible!) resist >urine. What can we use? When I refinished our upstairs floors one room at a time I was also concerned with finding a urine-proof, vomit-proof, claw-scratch-proof finish. I used a varnish that is recommended for boat decking and basketball courts (there was a paragraph on the can that actually said it resisted urine and fruit acids). It has worked like a charm so far (about 1.5 years). I do not remember the name of it (a lot of help I am!) but it was *very* expensive about $50 gallon. I put on three coats sanding in between. I put a 4th coat of it on in the corners of each room that is not noticable to me - although a professional wood finisher might not approve. This finish was a pretty big pain because it took a couple of days to dry in between coats (rather than the typical 8 hours or less). It was nasty nasty nasty to smell and to clean up after. Very high gloss and it darkened the wood pretty considerably. And all in all was a bigger pain then I think it could have been. In retrospect, I think it was a bit of an over-reaction on my part to look for something so industrial strength to prevent stains and stuff. Now we are going to refinish our wood floors downstairs and I will probably not go to such lengths. Let me know how your project turns out. Hey, isn't BIG a weekend wood worker? I thought he mentioned that one time. Charlene [Moderator's note: Not a weekend wood worker, but perhaps knowledgeable nonetheless. Polyurethane *extremely* durable. You don't need the marine stuff for indoors - the main difference is that the marine ("spar") finish has UV inhibtors so it stands up to the sun. So, as far as the stuff goes, you can get water based or the regular oil based. Water based with an added hardener is also extremely durable and will not darken the wood much. It also is environmentally friendly and dries very quickly. The oil based is less expensive and darkens the wood - it brings out the features and leaves a more golden glow. Either will withstand water (or worse) very well. Buy a good one. The cheap stuff tends to yellow and takes forever to dry. I would recommend the water base with hardener. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 1454]