Putting poison on the cats.: seanan

Putting poison on the cats.

So recently, I had an unwelcome house guest: an elderly black cat spent about a week and a half in the laundry room, waiting to be removed to its new home. There were a lot of very good reasons for the cat's presence, most of which I don't really want to go into. Lilly and Alice were fascinated by the interloper; Lilly wanted to kill it, while Alice wanted to PLAY PLAY PLAY. Behold the difference between "manic" and "temperamental," ladies and gentlemen. The cat was eventually removed, returning the house to its normal state...but a host's gift was kindly left behind.

We have fleas again.

This was discovered when I took Alice to the groomer on Saturday (she'd managed to develop belly mats, thanks to all my recent traveling, and I just wanted them gone so we could return to non-painful grooming). "Did you know you have fleas? Oh, the poor baby, she's just crawling with them."

As I'm sure you can imagine, I was...displeased. I fought a long, hard battle to get rid of the fleas last time this happened. Since Alice is a longhair and Lilly has a very dense, plush coat, it's possible for them to have fleas without my actually being able to see the signs. And since I brush both of them really regularly, they don't get as itchy as they might otherwise, so I don't get as much visible scratching. I went straight out and got flea medication, along with carpet powder and bedding spray. Then I came home and checked the calendar.

See, most flea treatments are given at one-month intervals, and I needed to be sure the second dose would come due after I got back from Australia. Today turned out to be the magical day. The day I poured poison on the cats.

Alice took it with good grace, because Alice sweats sedatives. Lilly was substantially more offended, and slunk off to glare at me for about twenty minutes. I don't care. THE FLEAS WILL DIE. Thus I swear.

Stupid fleas.

zaan

August 13 2010, 00:57:33 UTC 6 years ago

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Hey guys, living in the San Diego area as I do, and being allergic to flea bites, I am suffering badly from fleas. and my guys don't get out. Just ordered Advantage from an Ebay seller I was emailing about this.

Any recommendations for a furnishings spray? In the UK before I moved here, with fleas breeding outside in my garden and the cats going out, I used Front Line puffer spray which meant no fleas lived on contact with their fur to come indoors, and a wonderful neuro toxin spray that killed any crawling insects on all furnishings for 7 or 9 months, depending on vet bought brand.

However, even up in Sacramento when I lived there, the Front Line Puffer spray didn't work, and I cannot find any furnishings spray that despite its claims, actually works on furnishings for more than a few weeks. :( I desperately need advice from you US seasoned flea killers my cats have to be confined to my bedroom lest they start peeing competitons with my son's cat, an Alpha one like my little Queen and huge Tom, so I get them sleeping on my bed and cannot avoid flea contact. :(

I have found, for those of you needing flea protection, that either deet based OFF Deep Woods formula, or Repel, plant based Lemon & Eucalyptus insect repellent on feet & ankles helps a lot. Watch out for nail varnished toes, though, as they both smudge nail varnish and make a dirty black film on top of them. :(

muddlewait

August 13 2010, 03:08:39 UTC 6 years ago

When we had them, we tried furniture sprays, washed everything incessantly, and imposed draconian limits on the cat's, and my, permitted living areas. Nothing helped until Advantage gave our kitty the touch of death. Within a couple days of her poisoned self roaming the house, no more fleas anywhere. I mean, it generated Paradox, sure, but it seemed worth it to me.

August 13 2010, 10:45:00 UTC 6 years ago

lol. Paradox? What's that? And thanks for the reassurances on Advantage. Mine should arrive tomorrow or the day after.

August 17 2010, 10:39:42 UTC 6 years ago

Short version: it's the price you pay for power.

Long version: In the old _Mage_ game from White Wolf (if you're not familiar with White Wolf, they make a bunch of supernatural-type role-playing games), if you used magic to change reality and you went too far, you'd often experience an effect that reflected either reality pushing back at you, or the consequences of the kind of reality you created. So, say you use magic to create this powerful poison that kills fleas, and you screw up or go too far. One the one hand, you might poison stuff you never intended to poison (like, in my case, myself). On the other, your poison might just make the fleas angry. And hate you. And follow you around, exhibiting their hatred in their flea-bitey way, for weeks. Hopefully, your magical poison didn't also make them huge.

Paradox is one of the more useful and widely applicable ideas in gaming I've encountered. For example, the environmental damage resulting from unwise energy policy could be viewed as a giant Paradox effect. Wanna move around in giant boxes of metal at sixty miles an hour and light up the night like it's daytime? Okay, but your boats now have to sail through gluey brown goop and your daytime air will be darkened with smog. There's a potential fallacy built into that point of view -- not every action will necessarily have some catastrophic result -- but giving some thought to the unexpected long-term repercussions of apparent shortcuts is generally a good thing.

I guess it's really just another way to look at karma, or the threefold law from some flavors of Paganism, though with a more direct cause-and-effect relationship.

That said, sometimes, the magic is worth it. (Like it was for me.) I hope all goes well with the cats.

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Putting poison on the cats.

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