Well this is an embarrassing question!

[Elizabeth Schott]

Today my dog stepped in a red color (Alizarin Crimson) oil paint and tracked it through the living room on our beige carpet. Please don

[Michele Rushworth]

My big kitty looked up over my taboret to see what was going on last week and got one of his white paws in pink and one in the green. I got the result of his creative explorations out of my white carpet with lots of liquid handsoap, alternating with a little odorless mineral spirits, and a lot of water.

I rubbed the soap in, pressed lots of paper towels on it, soaked lots of water in, and pressed on more paper towels. Then I repeated the process with mineral spirits and then did the whole thing over again.

I think I let my kitty look at my book, "Why Cats Paint", one too many times.

[Margaret Port]

If paint is to be spread about, you can guarantee that it will be red. And a little bit goes such a long way!!!! Over the years I have spilt red silk dye, red acrylic, red poster paint, red screen printing paint. Nothing else, just red!

Lift all you can with a knife, then mist paint with turps, don't rub yet. Just keep blotting with clean paper towels and misting as it gets less and less. Then put neat liquid soap, (clear washing up detergent) on and rub in well, no water at this stage. Blot that off with more paper towels and eventually it should come out. I have found that once you put water on it, the soap doesn't work any more. Once the colour is gone, then you can wet it to remove the soap. ( or let it dry and spot clean and vacuum.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Thanks Michele and Margaret, I will try a number of options, since there is enough spots and report back which worked the best.

On a side note Michele, my dog is not as smart as your cat, since he does indulge in books, but after this I would say he is much smarter than the artist though!

[Elizabeth Schott]

I just thought I would report back and let you know the results of my experiment.

I got the following tip from a lady who was a cleaner for years:

[quote]I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you'll probably always have red spots. The first thing to try is mineral oil, or baby oil. this will help dilute the paint. Pour it on and rub in a circular motion with your fingers. Then blot it up with a towel. Do not rub to pick up the oil as you'll only drive it in deeper. You'll then have to clean the oil itself, which will involve a lot of blotting and then take some warm ammonia and water to that. Keep brushing it in a circular motion, blotting it up and re-applying more ammonia water. I would stay away from oven cleaner. It can damage the fibers. If you really want to do it you'll want to test another area first. Regardless of how you go with this you'll get the paint up but red pigment used in anything at all is the toughest to remove and usually permanent. You can lighten it considerably though using the method I

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Beth, once you get as far as you can, mix up some beige and paint the spots.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Tim, you are certainly a "Stroke of Genius"!

I hope you become a realtor when it comes time to sell my house!

[Margaret Port]

Or you could paint pink spots everywhere! So the accidental ones blend in!!!