My Dog Had Fleas!!

It is 9:07, time to lock up and sit in a stupor in front of the TV. I have earned it today. I arose early and picked a pitiful few green beans from my garden, as well as some tiny squash. Feeling industrious, I pre-cooked dinner. Fresh green beans and tiny potatoes. The pork chops thawing and the makings of cornbread all set. I did a couple loads of laundry. One load consisted of all the coats and jackets He Who drives pulled from various vehicles.

The weather is absolutely perfect. A hint of winter to come is in the air and rumor has it that we will drop into the 40's tonight. I fear my bananas will not have time to ripen before I have to dig the tree up and let it go dormant. HeWho drives was on a taxi call to the airport and it gave me the opportunity to move all the furniture and scrub the floors in our sitting room and kitchen.

On the recent trip north I discovered a flea on my Cujo. It occurs to me that anyone reading this for the first time may not be aware that Cujo is my little doxie and not a pet name for something obscene. I mean, it is a pet name since Cujo is my pet, but ..... Anyhoo, since I have had my little dog, he has never had a flea. He was crying and carrying on like he had something horribly wrong with him. He was chewing on his underside, so I flipped him over and found the tiny varmint trying to crawl away on the underside of his short leg. I caught the offender and smashed him between my thumb nails. How dare a flea jump on my dog!

Cujo was very pleased with me. He snuggled close and kept trying to kiss my thumbs. It was close to time for the Frontline to be applied, so we promptly dosed all the dogs the next day. Being away from home, we had to go purchase it.

I had not given the incident any more thought. Until last night. Toni Louise, who has black fur has been itching lately and will scratch all night long. She has been known to have allergies and we have a supplement and some topical spray from our vet. We dosed her with her flea stuff and have been giving her the supplement and spraying the itch stuff on her. Never occurred to us that she would have fleas.

Her belly is so red and irritated and every night we have to hold her down to apply the spray. Last night I found a FLEA! So, today I planned on a massive bathing of animals, but this is not a chore for the faint of heart. Since HeWho drives abandoned us to taxi a man to the airport, I did not want to tackle this task while on my own. It is, after all Friday in a campground. And we are in the throws of Octoberfest.

So, after we ate our dinner and got interrupted only once to check in a latecomer. I decided to tackle the dog wash/flea dip before closing the store. I forbade HeWho drives to abandon me and left him in charge of checking in the last two reservations. All he had to do was take a wet dog wrapped in a towel after handing me the next victim.

I managed to wash and dip all four dogs, with time left to catch Martha, the boy cat and attempt to give him a bath. Martha is now bigger than any of the dogs and out weighs them. It has been quite some time since I have bathed my feline friend. We fought. He won. I did manage to douse him with the flea dip. He is really, really mad at me. Mad as a wet hen, as they say; or maybe a wet cat.

After all that, I took my industrious mood a step further and only did I scrub down the bathtub, but I drug out that handy tool and cleared the drain of hair and gunk. This is clearly going the extra mile, since this falls under the title of a job for the husband! I deserve special treatment.