Fleas

We have fleas.  Horrible, dreadful fleas.  We haven't had fleas in three years of living in the north.  This summer, my brother-in-law and family moved here from Manitoba.  They brought my father-in-law a rat.  Er, dog.  A chihuahua. 

They also brought fleas.  I didn't pay much attention as they complained all summer about how bad the fleas were.  My dogs didn't have fleas.  Not my problem.

Except, my f-i-l lives here, on our property.  We built him an add-a-room on our trailer in our yard last year.  Most of the time I don't pay much attention to his little rat.  Occasionally I see it running around outside, thinking it's a real dog, but my beasts leave him in their dust.

When Ebony went into heat again, and Waldo wasn't fixed yet, we tied up all the beasts.  It was kind of funny how the rat hovered around the girls.  Thinking himself in love.  We laughed as he humped their legs.  He was too little to be a threat.

It's not so funny now.  Poor Ebony ripped out half the fur on her back end before it occurred to me that she might have fleas.  But she was still nursing.  No chemicals.  Not that I usually use chemicals anyway, but this was getting ridiculous.  I started noticing everyone scratching.  Including the kids.  Not good.  I bought some diatomaceous earth.  Sprinkled it on the dogs, beds, couch, carpets.  It's helped, but it hasn't got them all yet.

Lucky, our cat,  is covered in scabs.  Ebony is still scratching like crazy.  Waldo and Wonder aren't much better.  The puppies seem to be okay.  I broke down this week and bought Hartz flea spray and drops.  I hate spreading poison through the house, but the fleas have got to go!  I'll have to remember to be more dilligent about sprinkling diatomaceous earth from spring right through fall, and sprinkle it around Pop's place too.  What a pain in the ass!