steamrite

 Jenna Kowalski had known from the beginning that getting two dogs approved for a rental in Aurora was a minor miracle. She had submitted the application with a detailed pet resume — yes, that is a real thing landlords sometimes request — including vet records, temperament evaluations, and a personal letter explaining that Biscuit and Gravy, her two rescue beagles, were well-trained, house-broken, and unlikely to destroy anything that hadn't already been destroyed in the adoption shelter they came from. Her landlord, a patient man named Gerald who owned three properties in the Aurora area and had been burned by pet damage before, had approved the application with one very clear condition. "You return my carpets the way you got them," he said at lease signing. "Clean. No stains. No smell." Jenna had shaken his hand without hesitation. She was a responsible dog owner. She cleaned up accidents immediately. She used the enzymatic sprays. She kept a dedicated spot...

 It started with a sneeze. Then another. Then a pattern that Donna Fitzgerald could no longer explain away as seasonal allergies, dry Colorado air, or the particular sensitivity she had always blamed on living near the foothills. Every morning, within twenty minutes of waking up, Donna's eyes were watering. Her eight-year-old son Marcus was going through a box of tissues every three days. Her husband Greg had developed a persistent dry cough that lingered from October straight through February without ever fully resolving into an actual cold or clearing up the way a cold eventually would. Their family doctor ran the standard panels. Dust mites. Pet dander. Mold spores. Marcus came back mildly reactive to all three. The doctor recommended an air purifier for the bedroom, an allergen-reducing mattress cover, and the kind of general advice about reducing indoor allergens that sounds straightforward until you actually try to implement it in a house where two adults, one child, and on...