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Anyone with canine companions will lament the “dog smell” that permeates their homes, especially in wet weather. Very often, the culprit is the floor covering, which, let’s face it, is the dog’s domain. So thank heaven for flokatis!

A flokati is an all-wool, shag carpet from Greece; if it’s not Greek, it’s not a genuine flokati. They’re priced according to weight–the denser the rug, the higher the price—and because flokatis have no backing, they’re completely washable.

Our Scotties LOVE to dig and roll in them and that’s just fine with us. Once a month we haul the rugs off to a commercial laundromat where we load the big ones into a 75 lbs front-loader. They come out as fresh and clean as new.

That’s Punch, above (photo by Olya), in one of the rare moments when our cream-coloured Louis XV sofa was uncovered; most of the time it’s swathed under a protective layer of flokati. We now own five of these rugs, which means we’ve got one in nearly every room in the house. If you’ve got dogs, take my advice; buy a steam cleaner or buy a flokati.