In celebration of , I want to share this post with you. In my (so far) child-free household, my dog Jeff and cat Bubba roughly equate to children, and like many dog and cat moms, I treat them that way. They have clothes. They eat well. In fact, their food is so expensive that I have to include it as a line item in my budget. And Jeff has had enough schooling to qualify for a doctorate. One would think that the lovely "gifts" they occasionally leave around the house would not bother me. In fact, I have a very high threshold for gross things. I even enjoy them to a certain extent: I love watching horror movies and televised surgical procedures. But for some reason there are a few things that really test my gag reflex, including fur balls and food related gunk. So what is it about these things that multiply my gross-out factor? It's the BUGS. And I don't mean roaches or flies, I mean microbes. Every time I find a "gift" on the floor I immediately start a list in my head of the microorganisms that could be growing: "E. coli, Salmonella,..." I guess this might sound a little obsessive compulsive, unless you learn that I've dedicated much of my career to figuring out how to kill germs. Why would anyone want to do that for a living, you ask? Well, many bugs wreak havoc on the public's health and, as an infectious disease epidemiologist, protecting public health is something I really care about. Plus, bugs are fascinating; they can even talk to each other! To be clear, I'm not a germaphobe in the traditional sense -- you won't find me disinfecting every surface, bathing in hand sanitizer, or using a tissue to open doors in public places. But, I do use hard surface disinfectants, wash my hands frequently, and use hand sanitizer when water isn't available. I work for Seventh Generation, and some of the products I like to use in my house are our new line of household Disinfecting Cleaners that kill over 99.99% of household germs* naturally on hard nonporous surfaces. (*Please see our label for full details). Seventh Generation's Disinfecting Cleaners are Powered By � patented technology based on thymol, a component of thyme oil which is derived from the herb thyme. Do you have pets in your household? What Seventh Generation products do you use to clean up after them?