A Park Slope pet owner is furious with workers at a local carpet-cleaning businesses whom she claimed pulverized her beloved kitty’s paw during a recent cleanse, and then refused to pay the animal’s thousand-dollar medical tab, instead offering a mere $130 refund on the shampoo job.
“They were grossly negligent in not telling us they hurt our cat and refusing to even consider our vet bills,” said Emma Chapman.
Chapman’s 14-year-old puss, Ralphie, was at her parents’ Dyker Heights home on Aug. 27, when Stanley Steemer cleaners showed up about 20 minutes early for their 9 am appointment, leaving the family no time to wrangle the cat, whom the workers were told to keep watch for, the pet owner claimed.
But as the employees moved furniture to prepare for a deep clean of the 78th Street residence’s basement carpet, they dropped a couch on Ralphie’s paw, causing a compound fracture that left bones protruding from his skin, according to Chapman, who said her parents later found the agonized kitty hiding beneath their bed.
“He had a badly broken foot with bones sticking out of the skin,” she said.
The family then rushed Ralphie to a nearby vet, whose diagnosis aligned with the trauma that they suspected the kitty endured, Chapman said.
“The vet said the injuries are consistent with something like furniture being moved on top of it,” she said.
Ralphie’s hospital visit resulted in a $3,000 bill, and he is far from back on his feet following the treatment, according to Chapman, who said antibiotics he received caused gastrointestinal problems that made him vomit blood and lose his appetite.
“He may not survive,” she said. “Myself and my family are completely devastated.”
Chapman said she contacted Stanley Steemer’s 20th Street outpost after the incident, but a manager there claimed his crew saw neither hide nor hair of any cat, blaming the injuries on the family’s negligence.
“He said, ‘My guys didn’t see no cat. It’s your pet, your responsibility,’ ” she said.
She then reached out to the company’s Ohio headquarters, where a more-sympathetic employee offered to cover the carpet-cleaning bill, but not a penny of Ralphie’s medical fees, according to Chapman.
Finally, the distressed cat owner contacted the person who investigates insurance claims against Stanley Steemer, who told Chapman that her he-said-she-said situation was not basis enough for filing a claim, she said.
“Stanley Steemer’s insurance adjuster told me ‘it’s your word against the crew, and since I work for Stanley Steemer, I have to take their word over yours,’ ” she said.
Reps for Stanley Steemer did not immediately return messages left seeking comment about the incident.
