Destroyer of Pests

First, please stop by Man Eating Bookworm to see my guest post and spread some love!

Two weekends ago we made a mad dash down to South Carolina for an emergency hospital visit. Seeing as how we have a dog and a cat, they had to find homes, as we weren't sure exactly how long we would be in said State.

The cat went to my mom, but alas, a dog is considerably harder to care for. He came with us.

He was remarkably well behaved in the car. We stopped at rest stops during his designated feeding times, so at least that part of his schedule stayed the same. He's crate-trained, and we packed up the crate to bring, also. It's nice because then he always has a safe place (both for him and us) to be. He slept a lot of the ride, got no car sickness (thank goodness!) and mussed up all the windows with his nose.

My dad's dog is an outdoor dog (90% of the time she's outdoors) and as an obvious result was a tail-wagging bag of fleas. We Frontline our dog, which is a medicine they get once a month that puts a sort of poison in their bloodstream so that when fleas and ticks bite, they die. It's not harmful to the dog (unless overdosed).

We didn't bother with it during the winter, as it's not really a flea/tick season. We got our dog last November and bought Frontline for his size (puppy-sized). Unfortunately, our puppy is about 10 months old and over 60lbs, so he's considerably bigger than that dosage warrants. We can't Frontline him again until next week, per dosage orders, because we aren't sure how much a puppy dosage affects a dog his size (except that he still got fleas :P).

Regardless, my dog came home with fleas which, anyone who has seen them crawling all over anything, can attest to... EW. My fiance generally goes to work around 7:30, whereas I go to work about 10:30 (opening driver). About 8~9am, my dog wakes up and starts to whine for morning bathroom time. I usually let him out, then bring him in the bed for cuddles for the last hour or so before I actually get out of bed. You aren't supposed to let the dog sleep in the bed with you at night because they supposedly grow a superiority complex and refuse to obey.

My dog is a giant wuss and obeys me pretty readily, so these short stints in the morning seem to be no problem.

I should also mention - Ajax is half black lab, half border collie. He's loving and adorable, but also does really, really well with a set schedule and knowing where he needs to be (and also tasks. For example, instead of yelling at him when he carries our socks around the house, we taught him to put them in the hamper.)

Because of his fleas, he was banned for morning cuddles because who wants fleas in their bed? Ew.

My fiance bathed him on Saturday (his usual bathing day) but I immediately found live fleas on him again. (Ahem, someone didn't bathe him well enough.) I read the directions very carefully and waited a few days (flea baths contain pesticides, a dangerous possibility for overdosage). Today I scrubbed him down for all get out, until I thought my arms would fall off (as per the directions.) Then I slowly counted to sixty five times (as per five minutes) and rinsed him down.

A lot of flea eggs (EW) and small, live fleas (EW) fell into the water, along with about fifteen large fleas (EW). After drying, I took my dog into my room for inspection.

First, I "Shot" my dog. I pointed my hand, in the shape of a gun, at him and yelled, "BANG!" He rolled onto his back with all four paws in the air. Then I gave him the "Stay!" command. He stayed very still while I picked over him like a monkey. I'm proud to announce I saw no live fleas! Hopefully this will be the end of it and we can Frontline him this weekend and be done with fleas (EW).

Then I gave my dog lots of lovey-scratches and made him "Go to your place!" so he'll lay down and be quiet while I finish writing "Coward"! :)

The End.