Just when I thought everything was going so well.

On Friday the kids put our beloved cat, TigerHeart, in his harness and leash to walk him outside. He's a big Maine Coon cat and seems to tolerate the leash better than most cats. Tiger decided to relieve himself in the great outdoors.

When I told my daughter that just like you clean up after your dog, she was going to have to clean up after Tiger, I expected that she'd balk and feign illness to get out of the responsibility. Instead she found a creative solution. She carried the Febreeze air freshner outside and sprayed while she scooped.

I wish the story ended there.

Unfortunately, my son, Maxfield, then grabbed the Febreeze. He's become quite obsessed with it lately - we've gone through 3 bottles of it this month. He's especailly sensitive to smells and will fumigate the whole house when he deems something smells bad. (Regular bad smells: cat litter box, gas, guinea pig and bunny cage. But he's also sensitive to many food smells: salsa, onions, beans)

So the Febreeze is now outside with my obsessive sprayer. He sprays trees, bushes, playground equipment, and stinky kids.

Maxfield wasn't outside for very long. I suspect the Febreeze ran out before it could make the whole world smell better. He came back inside and plopped himself in front of the TV while I was setting up our computer network.

10 minutes later, there's a knock at the door. A mother and one of Maxfield's Febreeze victims arrive to share the story of a poor asthmatic 6-year-old boy who was now hooked up to his nebulizer because the Febreeze didn't just make him smell good, it triggered an asthmatic reaction. In asthma boy's mother's eyes, my son was a playground bully. All I could do was play my trump, as autism beats asthma in any playground throwdown. I expressed how sorry I was and that Maxfield didn't mean to hurt her boy.

I've asked Maxfield to find the boy and apologize, but in the last few days he hasn't been on the playground. The boy doesn't know it, but an apology from Max is a rare, rare thing.

If only there was a pure, sanitized, scent-free world that my son could live in.