This is gonna be a short one, because I have to get busy wasting the company’s time, toner and paper typing up the music lists for a wedding we’re doing this weekend (an OUTDOOR wedding, when it’s been raining all week and isn’t supposed to stop… good times!). But I had to let y’all know…
THE FLEAS ARE DEAD.
I hadn’t wanted to give the cats any poison stuff, but I finally caved and Dear Sweet Mama sent a UN Relief Package of those pills you give them that make the fleas die. And lemme tell y’all — that shit is MAGIC! Within like 10 minutes, you could actually SEE the little dead flea corpses dropping off the cats (which was kinda gross but also kinda fascinating). And as of this morning, I have not seen any live fleas! So… we may… have won?
The only bad part was that the side effects are “increased vocalization and hyperactivity”… which we in the Hoo household already have plenty of, thanks! And of course Callie Jean tried to murder me and Ti-Jacques is not a big fan of the pill-taking either (she bit me, spit the pill out, and kicked me in the neck with her freakishly strong legs in an effort to escape, and he TRIED to bite me but I just waited til the little bastard opened his mouth and dropped the pill in — ha!). But the battle MAY be… over.
hoodyhoo 
Battling fleas is horrible. Don’t forget to treat the house and the cat’s bedding. Throw out your vacuum bags after each time too. Yeah, I know I sound like a know it all, but here in the South we battle them year ’round.
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I’m on it, boss — the only problem with treating THEIR bedding is that it’s also MY bedding, but I guess I won’t have fleas either!
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Crabs are worse than fleas. Er, at least that’s what I would assume. Hypothetically. Um….
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Thank you, Shane. . .I now officially have both the heebies AND the jeebies. ((shudder))
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Gotta say I’m with Jen on this one… this may be why Shane’s not allowed back in America… : )
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All hail the conquering hero!! Congrats on your (possible) victory! Good luck at the wedding . . . is this the one out the bumfuck? If so, be safe as well.
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this one was only relatively bumfuck… you have to drive through McMethVille to get there, but then it’s a beautiful country club. The TRUE bumfuck gig was a class reunion… I think the graduating class only had like a hundred people in it?
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This is reason 436 why I do not have pets. I have enough trouble keeping my children from jumping on the counters and crapping on the floor.
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See that’s why I don’t have kids.
If I can’t stop the cat doing it, what chance have I got with something that can jump higher and shit more?
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KIDS SHIT MORE THAN CATS????? Yet another reason to avoid procreation… 4 cats shit enough as it is, and Mina and Ti-Jacques like to clear the house!
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I treated a house once 3 times. 3. for fleas. 3 times. You’re thinking..so, wasn’t that your job? yep. it was also torture, she had fleas so bad I looked like I shook pepper all over myself every time I left. blech!
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that’s how I looked during the Great Flea-o-caust… every time the cats laid on my chest I got this huge flea graveyard all over me!
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Let’s hope that’s the end (or the beginning of the end) of your flea problems! When I was a kid, we usually had to do multiple treatments to get rid of fleas. However, we didn’t have the miracle poisons that exist now so….there’s that.
Also, one of the worst flea infestations was in an apartment where we did not have pets, and they had changed the carpet. Anyone who tells you fleas can’t live on humans? THEY LIE. So you might wanna swallow a pill too. Can people take them?
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I’n saying “beginning of the end” for now… still worried about the possible eggs lurking in corners… and no, the pills specifically said people can’t take ’em… dammit.
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Yay! I am happy for you. And I’m happy for me because every time you talk about fleas I get all itchy. And then I go pray thankful thoughts to the snow gods for letting me live here where fleas don’t survive so easily.
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I still maintain, I never had any trouble until Chuckweasel let those damn DOGS in the apartment…
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Fleas are awful little things, glad they are gone.
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and this year’s crop seems less… smooshable? crunchable? whatever, they don’t die when you mash on ’em.
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I sent the UN relief package as an advanced treatment for my visit in October. Since I can’t actually bomb or firestrike your apartment. I do not want to be sleeping in the fleatel. Tell those cats to straighten up before Grammy gets there!!
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please, I’ve been totally threatening them for WEEKS!
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Fucking FLEAS man! Die, bitches, die!
Happy the pillsies are workign for you, that’s pretty rad. I’d love to watch the little bastards suffer (the fleas, obviously, not the cats), but I’m kind of a dick like that.
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yeah, I actually held one little dying flea in my hand and watched it squirm and flail until I started to think maybe that was fucked up… and I asked Chuckweasel, who says, indeed, that WAS fucked up.
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Congratulations on your victory! I never realized there were magic flea-killing pills.
Have you ever tried Pill Pockets? They’re basically cat treats that you hide pills inside of. I was skeptical at first, but they do seem to have just the right amount of stickiness. I used them on Holly once, and they worked (although she’ll eat almost anything).
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I thought about it, but these cats are WIIIIISE… when the flea-vasion first started, I tried adding garlic powder to their food (just a little, they wouldn’t have even tasted it) and they were all totally onto me. Every single one just looked at the plate, looked at me, and stalked off like, “Yeah, right.”
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I think my cat’s fleas mostly died of old age, she still has the flea collar, mostly because I’m too lazy to replace it, and I haven’t been bitten in ages, so I think they just gave up the ghost.
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if it weren’t for the little bastards using Callie Jean as an incubator, I think we’d have gotten rid of ours long ago… damn her cute fuzzy belly!
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Giving a cat a pill was seriously like trying to saddle Satan, and officially started our conversion into a dog-only house. I need to make you a cape, because you are my hero.
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it wasn’t as bad as I thought… I escaped with RELATIVELY few injuries, except the cat-kick bruises from Callie Jean the Kickin’ Machine!
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We use spot-on here – they don’t like the wet back of the neck thing but I’m pretty good at overpowering them. We’ve also become lucky enough to only need to de-flea in spring – in our new house they just don’t seem to get them for more than a month a year. In our old house with no access to the outdoor world they just…kept….getting them!
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I used that before the pills, but I think I used a sissy hippie “green” version ’cause it didn’t seem to cost enough for real poison (and it didn’t do jack-shit!).
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It’s not fucked up to watch a flea squirm and die. It’s the food chain. We’re at the top, man, so we can watch A LOT of other things squirm and die.
That said, in my experience, top of the food chain, opposable thumbs, capacity for reason–whatever, doensn’t matter. In the end, we’ll be long gone, and fleas will still be here. Those fuckers are nothing if not persistent. I wish you the best, but will certainly not fall off my seat if I come across another flea battle post from you. Remeber, there are battles, and then there’s the war.
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so far, I’m considering this a fighting retreat on their part… there’s no way I can withdraw from the pursuit!
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PLEASE, please tell me how i can find these magic pills. our indoor/outdoor cats are driving us nuts.
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It’s Hoody Hoo, on Chuckweasel’s phone — we got the pills from the Drs Foster and Smith website, no Rx needed — they’re about 30 bucks for 6 doses
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