There all kinds of bites- love bites, food bites and then we have the insect bites!! Nothing like that itchy sensation that demands a scratch. I can manage ant bites, bee sting, mosquito bites even those caused by big fat black bumble bees but not by cat fleas.
Cat Flea bites are the worst and my acquaintance with them happened when we got Zoey and became worse with Kensei. Having kept dogs all my life I was familiar with tics and regular fleas even cow fleas but not these little buggers!!
It is painful and the itch never goes! Well, only Lactocalamine and cold water helps till one absentmindedly scratches that area again and viola! the itchy and scratchy show begins all over again. These little monstrosities actually leave a trail of devastation behind – the bite marks actually follow a pattern. Its as if the little fleas actually dip into the skin while taking a leisurely stroll over the body.
Many a times it’s a line of four five bites with little bumps and a tiny dot in the middle. The pain felt from a cat flea bite drive cat lovers mad. And when it finally sinks in that the love of your life is suffering from mange the household is turned upside down.
Every gawd damn thing has to be fumigated- the carpets, the furniture, the linen and even the clothes in the cupboards. Yeah, as it happens that little nasties can live in clothes as well. So don’t go around leaving your clothes on the bed if the cat happens to sleep on the bed or forget to wash the clothes you had been wearing while the war was being waged against you on your own body.
Everything and I mean everything has to be washed in hot soapy water, add a little Dettol just to be sure. But while doing this remember to give the little kitty a bath as well. Not a good proposition, I know, but it has to be done and remember the evil-lets may try to jump ship as it happened during one such baths and had me hopping. The flea didn’t drop but deliberately jumped ship which was me!!
And the mad dance began – cats yowling and me screeching in pain and jiggling like a crackhead bellydancer. Not amusing believe me, not at all.
What came to our rescue before the insidious dacoits terrorized our tots? This ingenious little thing called Advantage. Its damn expensive – the American one is for about fourteen hundred and the German one is for about eighteen hundred. Lot of money but it buys sanity for four to six months for both for the cats and the owners.
Don’t let any of the pet shop owners palm off powders for the cats. Felines love to lick and they merely lick the poison in. What works is putting drops of Advantage on the base of their tail and neck and that’s the nuking of the little pests.
But all in all, the damage has been done to me. A single bite from any kind of insect has me petrified. I scratch and think the worst- check the bite, check my kids little bodies, scold my little munchkins who wave their little tails at me and rue the day I fell in love with felines and found myself besieged by unwelcome guests barely visible by the naked eyes.
