Sadly this is not a typo… I did not see the new (and awesome-looking) Broadway musical produced by Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (FELA! if you haven’t heard about it)… As much as I would like to a) be in NYC b) have tickets to FELA! or c) not be de-flea-ing my dog and my apartment, I did in fact find a flea on Walter on Sunday and have been reacting to that ever since. Perhaps needless to say, I freaked out about it, but have since calmed down because as far as I can tell there are actually only a very small number of fleas at this point. I have nonetheless taken the following actions:
- purchased a flea comb and killed several fleas myself by submersing them in soapy water – apparently they can hop out of non-soapy water unscathed, which I believe proves that they are the devil incarnate
- liberally sprinkled Borax all my living room, working it into the carpet with a scrub brush, and then vacuumed it up
- similarly Boraxed my mattress (and yes, it is a verb now)
- written out a plan to Borax the rest of the apartment
- identified a flea shampoo and spray that does not contain pyrethrins (because they are crazy toxic to everything, not just fleas) but instead dissolves the exoskeletons of the fleas to kill them
- bathed the dog in said shampoo (resulting washing 4-5 dead fleas down the drain – yay!)
- laundered pretty much every piece of fabric that the dog has ever touched
Keep your fingers crossed that they are taken care of…
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I will admit to coveting Walter. A lot. Every fall, right before the semester begins, I think about finding a Boston of my own but then something like this pops up and I remember that now is not the right time for me. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteKill those fleas! Kill them!