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| Rowdy and Calvin, Pennsylvania 1992 |
Jezibel misses her dad. She came to my lap the other day, something she rarely does. I petted her, but she wouldn’t lie down. Finally she left. She just didn’t have it in her to show me that she wanted attention.
She sleeps in Charlie’s computer room. When I go in to feed her in the mornings, she is in his chair. She’s letting me pet her and I think she enjoys it. Just a few minutes ago, I had to give her an asthma pill. It always makes her so mad. But, it helps her breathe better and has to be done.
Mr. Creme has really become my shadow, or at least he’d like to be. I do give him quite a bit of attention. The other day I was sitting on the glider on the patio. I usually sit on the right side, but Kaci had been there earlier. She had eaten grass and threw up. I cleaned it and have to wash the cover. I sat on the left side. This is where Taz used to sit when he and I sat here. I always could feel his presence there after he died. For awhile, it was hard for me to be there.
Mr. Creme came up and sat on my lap. I thought, ‘how nice it was that he liked sitting on my lap’. Then I thought, “Taz has gone on now.” About the time I had that thought, Mr. Creme abruptly got up and left. I guess Taz is still here, after all! He and Mr. Creme did not like each other and when MC tried to come near me, Taz would not have it. Nice to know Taz is still keeping an eye on me.
My acupuncture job is going well. I still get treatments on Tuesdays and Fridays. My back is improving and it’s nice to be able to do things that I’ve always been able to do. I went to the chiropractor last week. He said I was doing well and still on maintenance. I won’t have to go back until August 15.
Charlie usually does the vacuuming. We have a Dyson vacuum which is very good, but it has a metal case and it’s kind of heavy and cumbersome to use. Since I knew I’d have to vacuum a couple of times while Charlie was gone, he suggested that I use the Dyson upstairs, but to not carry it downstairs. Use the Kenmore vacuum in the closet downstairs.
Today was vacuuming day. I ran some errands in the morning and then got the Dyson out. I was busy doing the upstairs rooms and I guess I was entertaining the cats. When I came out of the rooms, Jonesie and Kaci were there, staring at me like they had never seen me vacuum before. I have to admit I was a little rusty at it since I haven’t done it in awhile.
I decided that I could bring the Dyson downstairs and finish the floors there. It took me awhile to do the whole house, but after emptying the canister three times, I was done and I felt like I had really accomplished something. I don’t know how long it takes Charlie, because he always does it while I’m gone out on errands.
It was hard for me to turn the vacuuming over to him. I’ve always done things around the house. When I started having my back problems, I still tried to do the vacuuming. Finally, I told him that if he’d vacuum the upstairs and bring the vacuum down, I would do the downstairs. Then, it got to the point that he started doing the whole house. Of course, no one can do the job that I always did, so I’d ask him, “Did you vacuum this, did you vacuum that?” Finally, one day he said, “I have a system. I do this, I do that, and I get everything.” You’d think he might say, “If you can do a better job, do it.” No, his mom didn’t raise him that way.
I know I’ll have to vacuum again before he comes home, but it makes me appreciate what he does even more.
We’re having flea problems here. I was using Advantage on the cats and Frontline on the dog. Everyone was scratching and by combing through the fur, we saw fleas. Charlie took Sheila to the groomer. They said when they bathed her, she had fleas. We got some Comfortis for her, which is a pill that kills fleas. Even that didn’t seem to help.
I bought some Frontline for the cats and tried that. Still they scratch and I comb and find fleas. We don’t seem to have fleas hoping around the house. If they were, they would have found Charlie first.
I checked with neighbors to see if they also had fleas. They do. We have a dog who is always in the yard behind us and our neighbor on the other side has three dogs. She says that she gives her dogs baths and treatments and still has fleas.
I called Terminex (we have a contract for pest control) and had them come out to treat our yard. I thought he would spray the grass, but he showed me the granules that he would use. He spread them like when you fertilize your lawn. The granules look like celery seeds, very tiny. I asked him how long before the dog and/or cats could come out into the yard. He said it was safe. The granules fall through the grass and set on the ground. When we have the sprinklers on, they stay and work on killing fleas. It should last for about 45 days. He said the granules were like when hard candy is dropped in water. It slowly melts. I didn’t let the cats out today though.
I went online to see how soon I could put Frontline on them again, and they recommend to not do it until 30 days is up. Apparently, when you apply Frontline to the pet, it starts working on killing any flea that jumps onto the pet. I’m hoping that with the yard treatment, the Frontline will start catching up. I don’t know if the fleas in our neighbor’s yards will overwhelm us.
We haven’t had a flea problem like this since we lived in Pennsylvania in the 90's. We had fleas in the carpet downstairs in our basement. I was down there one day, exercising, using our Norditrak. Rowdy was down there with me. He was scratching and biting, and finally he just ran up the stairs to get away. The fleas weren’t biting me, but I knew we had them.
We bathed our two cats, Rowdy and Calvin. They had flea collars (this was before Advantage or Frontline), and finally we bought a couple of bombs to fumigate the whole house. I don’t know whether all of this helped or it was that the weather started getting cooler, but the flea problem went away.
There is a product that is good to use on carpets and pet bedding. We’ve used it before when we noticed a flea problem. It’s a spray by Raid, in a purple can, and states that it’s for fleas. It does work. You just spray the carpet. It dries and we didn’t have any problems with the cats getting sick or anything. It does kill fleas in the carpet too.
This is just one of the things that people with cats and dogs have to deal with. At least we have some ammunition against fleas now. Years ago, I can remember my dad spraying our dogs with Sergeant’s Flea Spray. I can still remember how that smelled and how much they hated it. But, that was all we had then. And then those white flea collars came out. They may have been effective, but I can’t believe any of those things were good for our pets. Do they still sell flea collars? Not sure.
Kiki has been spending more and more loose time in the house. For the last few nights, she has been sleeping in a chair in the front room. So far she has not bothered anyone and no one is bothering her. When I feed her, I try to get her to go back into her 4x4 kennel on the patio. She has gotten smart. She refuses to go. I give in and feed her anyway. Only once in awhile will she run back to her 4x4. Sometimes I close the door and sometimes I leave it open. If I’m not home, I like for her to be in her 4x4. That way, nothing bad is going to happen.
More later....
TazzyD.... _^..^_
