Itty Bitty Biting Critters

When Cleo the kitten came home, she bought a whole party of little friends with her. I'd just spent nearly $100 on flea treatment for the dogs, and nearly had hysterics when I noticed they had little jumping things on them. I immediately called the company from which our flea stuff is from, and was getting ready to have an all in war over the fact they had uninvited guests, but I had the loveliest lady on the phone - she actually knew what she was talking about, was brilliant at her job, and spent a good twenty minutes discussing the flea cycles and their product. It somewhat reminded me of all those house I spent in Horse Studies at school, writing up assignments on bot flies. Anyway, it turns out if I see a flea on the dogs, I need to investigate what cycle it is in, how energetic it is etc to establish if it is a juvenille flea or starting a new cycle. Or something. So she offered to send our free samples to top up their monthly dosage. I was worried if the flea side of the product was wearing off so quickly, it would affect their heartworm & intestinal worm treatment. And hell, it was bloody expensive. So I was delighted to receive 3 free products in the mail today - one for Phoenix (45kg +) one for Sahara (35kg+) and one for little Cleo, whom isn't old enough for any of the products on the market yet. I was also extremely impressed with the free tennis balls she through in - I think I mentioned the fact I have to bathe Sahara regularly as she's a fiend for playing ball, and likes swimming in The Bog Of Eternal Stench to dunk them for added taste. I used the comb she sent, and found several fleas on Sahara - my poor girl! - and one on Phoenix. I washed Cleo yesterday - the bleeding on my arm has finally stopped from her tiny but effective claws - and now I'm wondering whether to bath the dogs now, or wait until this evening. It's 41 degrees, and I'm seriously considering making a pilgrimage to the water and spending the rest of the day immersed in the ocean with the dogs.

I have an absolute fear of fleas. I groom Sahara daily (and I've finally located her actual brush, which is handy as I just packed all my horse grooming gear I'd been using on her) and give her little massages to check for lumps and bumps and so on, and I have never one found a flea on her. Phoenix has a skin condition and is constantly scratching, and he is bathed weekly in a special solution and used to receive steroids, but when he first came home we went through a few days of intensive parasite control with him. It's not the fleas that bother me particularly - it's that the blood thirsty suckers bother the dogs. I'd hate to be eaten alive daily by irritating insects - hence my deep seated and unnatural fear of mosquito's. So I feel horrible guilty for the poor things knowing they've got their little infestation, yet I know with the hot temperatures and long grass it's a fact of life. Still, I plan on making more complaints to companies and getting more samples, as $93 for a month of treatment is ridiculous.