I guess the best way to begin this Toilet Tale is that my name is John. I’m not exactly sure of why or when toilets started to become known as, “The John”, however from the best of my knowledge and research the guy who invented the flushable toilet was supposedly known as, “John Crapper”. I guess that would explain two things. For the sake of my Invention called, “TOILETMATE”, I guess it would only make sense that the guy who invented it would in fact be named, “John” as well! No coincidences here!

When you set your mind at becoming very proficient at unclogging a toilet it doesn’t take too long to figure out the tricks of the trade. Gingerly becomes a key word. First, you must be sure to make a tight seal between the mouth of the plunger and the toilet drain in order to create the necessary pressure to force the clog through.

Then carefully, better yet, gingerly, you proceed to thrust downwards until hopefully, your thrusts create enough pressure without splashing – – IT everywhere, yet enough to break the clog loose and free the flow. The challenge lies in just how far from the brim your clogged waste remains. Even Plumbers will not plunge a badly clogged toilet near the brim, the only real remedy at that point is to snake the drain, and that was something that even I didn’t care to dive into. We’ve all been there more than once, some of us lots, too full to plunge because if you do, do-do everywhere, and trust me it’s much worse when it’s other people’s poo.

At that point you have two choices, call a Plumber and pay between $75 – $150, depending on what city you’re in and if it’s after hours, or become Handy Dan and try to do it on your own with just you and your handy plunger. More times than not, disaster occurs. – – IT splashes everywhere, on you, the floor, the tub, etc. Nasty, vile, disgusting, again, especially if it isn’t your – – IT! Needless to say, I truly became an expert on the craft of plunging a toilet, mostly out of necessity to not only save money but also to save from having other people’s **IT on me on a regular basis. Two very powerful motivators for sure.

All that to say that after over 12 Years of being our on-site “Plunging Specialist” I consider myself to be one of the best out there. What an accolade! I never really actually boasted about it until now. After all of those years of unclogging other peoples do-do, it became like clockwork, I knew the drill and it was systematic. The interesting thing was that I never really thought twice about the process, I knew what had to be done and did it. It became somewhat brainless for me. That was until many years later, on an unsuspecting afternoon on 4^th of July! Bombs away, no pun intended!

My brother-in-law, Joey, had been telling me about a show called, “Shark Tank”, for a couple of years saying, “Johnny, you got to watch Shark Tank, it’s right up your alley, it reminds me of you every time I watch it.” After countless times of him telling me about it over the years I finally saw an episode and that was it, I was Hooked! I became a Student of Shark Tank, literally watching three episodes a night on CNBC. When I couldn’t watch I would record it and watch six episodes the following night. My mind became engrained with an inventive perspective on things. I started to think about everything around me and how and what motivated the Inventor to create the solution to the problem. Everything was literally being primed for what was about to happen.

It was an ordinary summer day in Atlanta on Sunday, July 3^rd, that is with the exception of lots of Independence activity, family fireworks, bbq’s, etc. Our majestic German Sheppard, “Shadow”, somehow wound up on the back porch of our house which was quite rare to begin with and he was left out there for a couple of hours. I happened to open the porch door and noticed something extremely unusual, a very large pile of fresh dog poop. What’s important to understand is that Shadow is truly one of the smartest dogs you’ve ever met, in fact genius.

We really think there may be a person living inside him, most passionate pet owners can relate I’m sure. Shadow absolutely knows better, his eyes were so depressed and guilt ridden when I gazed over at him. I calmly let him know that it was ok, especially since it had never happened before and never since. We figured it may have even been due to some of the fireworks so it really wasn’t his fault to begin with.

It’s important to know that our Shadow is an exceptional canine, truly one of a kind, smart, caring, intentional, yet never, and I mean never does he have an accident, not number one or number two. On this day however he certainly made up for it! It looked like a T-Rex pooped on our back porch! What’s worse is that it was fresh and moist. (Sorry) I immediately made the assessment and decided to let it cool off and harden up a bit before I disposed of it. I casually made my way into the house, alerted my beautiful wife, “Baby, Shadow did a big giant poop on the back porch, I got it though, please just let it be and I’ll take care of it as soon as it hardens up a bit. She smiled questionably and nodded.

I went about my business and she, unlike her nature, disregarded my request and went to take care of Shadow’s business. It’s also important to note that my wife is a bug-a-phobic, she hates bugs, not Butterfly’s though. When she went out on the back porch to make her assessment she noticed an army of ants now crawling on the fresh poop pile. Well, that’s all she needed to see, that poop was doomed. She proceeded to get a roll of paper towels and neatly wrap the poop into what must have been the size of a soccer ball when she was finished. You can imagine what she did next…You guessed it, tossed the entire thing inside the downstairs toilet! SERIOUSLY?

You have to know that my wife is a truly brilliant medical doctor and she is extremely smart. When I questioned her about why she would put a giant pile of dog poop gift wrapped inside a wad of paper towels inside the toilet, what was she thinking? She casually said, “Well Baby, I kind of figured it would clog the toilet but I decided that I’d rather come back tomorrow and have it clogged inside the toilet than still be on the back porch covered in bugs. Besides, I knew that if it did clog you’d take care of it for me.” She followed her proclamation with a big cheesy smile!

The thing is, we were scheduled to leave that afternoon to head up to our Farm in North Georgia so to my wife it was by far the best immediate remedy. Today we all Thank God that she did what she did that unsuspecting day! Of course, at that point, the poop and paper towel combo created a horrific clog, worse than I’d ever seen from people poop. At the moment, we didn’t even have a plunger in the house since we had recently moved in, it was starting to get late and we wanted to make it to the Farm before sunset so I decided to wait until the following day when we returned to do the inevitable deed.

The next day, Monday, July 4^th, 2016, I proceeded to go to Lowes and bought the best plunger money could buy ($12) and came back to what was now about a thirty plus hour marinated dog poo stew. It was truly vile, the absolute worst I had ever faced! I went upstairs and put on my work out clothes to do what I expected to be a very nasty job. After living on the beach for a dozen years I rarely wear anything but my flip flops, it’s just become my thing and I enjoy the open toes and comfort. Well not today, I didn’t! I proceeded with my years of expertise as a Plunge Master”, gingerly, cringing all the way, only to result in a huge SPLASH OF VILE SEWAGE DOG WASTE ALL OVER MY OPEN TOES AND FEET! Then IT Happened!

I literally looked upwards and screamed, “I can’t @#$%*@ believe that we send men to the moon and no one has figured out a way to solve this problem yet! Suddenly it was as if a literal lightning bolt hit me, I saw the entire solution in front of me, “The Shield”, the plunger handle coming up through the middle, the whole enchilada! I came out of the bathroom with the poop waste still on my feet, with eyes all bugged out, “Baby, I got it”! I solved the problem! No More Back Splash When Plunging!”

I proceeded to explain the Invention as we discussed it and then decided to begin a preliminary Patent Search. The rest is literally history! We have since Invented The one and only TOILETMATE Anti-Microbial Splash Shields with A Built-In Odor Guard for plunging your toilets, both for household use as well as across the Institutional Industry, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, schools, etc., etc., etc. Then what began as a Solution to plunging evolved into the same for cleaning your toilet. Why not?

My partner Rick, went to lunch with his brilliant wife Angela and he explained to her what I had Invented and she nonchalantly stated, “Heck why would John just limit it to plunging, when just about every time I clean the toilet with bleach I get some splash on me and ruin my clothes, why not use it for cleaning toilets too?” The light bulb came on again and PlungeMate instantly became “TOILETMATE”! THE ONE AND ONLY SOLUTION OF IT’S KIND ON THE PLANET THAT SOLVES THE PROBLEM FOR BOTH PLUNGING AND CLEANING TOILETS!

It’s really important to keep in mind that after all the years of plunging toilets at the beach resort I had never once thought of a better Solution. God’s Timing is EVERYTHING ALWAYS! Just consider for a moment how it all began, our dog, Shadow, pooping on the back porch, which he never ever does. And what’s Dog spelled backwards, GOD! Man’s Best Friend! The mathematical probability of all of the above happening when and how it occurred is Off The Chart! That’s why we all truly believe that TOILETMATE will be under every bathroom sink around the world that has a FLUSHABLE TOILET and in every hospital, nursing home, school system, hotel, etc. on the planet to reduce the risk of contracting disease! It will become mandated because the liability won’t be worth it! Now that there’s finally a solution, there’s NO EXCUSE!

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE EVER AGAIN DEAL WITH PLUNGING OR CLEANING A NASTY TOILET WITHOUT A TOILETMATE ANTI-MICROBIAL SPALSH SHIELD PROTECTING THEM FROM TOXIC WASTE WATER SPLASH-BACK AND HARMFUL AIRBORNE BACTERIA? THEY WOULDN’T!