Fleas

My cats have fleas. For the second time in a week.

You see, when I got them they seemed clean. But, several days later, I noticed little black specks all over my bed. It's called flea dirt sometimes, but really it's excrement. If you wet it, it turns red.

A friend and I shampooed them in the bathtub. They scratched and hissed and one of them bit my thumb. But then they were clean, and I powdered the carpet and vacuumed. I assumed the fleas died.

Tuesday I saw some more flea dirt, but I was too tired to do anything about it. Wednesday I went to the grocery store to get some treatment. Can't use it on cats under 12 weeks, which these definitely are.

So I called the vet. She agreed to just give me the medicine without an appointment, so I went and picked up these pills called Capstar, I think, and some Advantage. And it only cost $60.

I almost lost my hand giving the pill to the first kitten. As I was on the phone to my pest-control guy, trying to arrange the bombing of my house, I pried open his jaws about seven times, and he just spit it out after using his claws to peel my hands off his head.

At one point I though he'd swallowed it. He foamed at the mouth a bit, from the pill, and then stayed still for a second, but when I let go he spit out a slightly smaller pill. Little bastard. I remembered some wet catfood I had from a month ago, and put the pills in that and he ate it.

The fourteen year old took two tries, but it's easier to hold her head back to use gravity to help get the pill in. Then I used the food for the second kitten.

So, on Monday, I get to take the cats to my sister's house, lock them in her bathroom, and stay out of my house for four hours while the poison works. Then, I get to vacuum my house, corner to corner every day for eleven days.

Don't you just love pets?