At War

It is official - I am at war.

This war has an army of three but our enemy is too great to number. Picture Gideon's army of 300 against the 135,000 on the side of the Midianites. Okay, so maybe this isn't a war of Biblical proportions but you get the point.

So who is the enemy you may ask? Brace yourself.... this battle is against the evil flea.

My naive entrance into dog ownership included completely overlooking a little bug called a Ctenocephalides canis, aka the flea. My lack of preventative measures probably arose from the fact that fleas make my skin crawl and I prefer to pretend they don't exist. Well, you'll see how far that got me! Instead of pretending they don't exist they are now haunting me by night and giving me the creepy-crawler feeling by day. It wasn't until Pippy was scratching like she had ants in her pants that the radar went off. I must admit that I wasn't even the first to raise the alarm. That prize goes to my Mom who did the first check and discovered the first of many intruders. I was horrified. Pippy was quickly swept off to the bathtub where we went to battle the fleas. Our weapons of choice included Dawn dish liquid and pure hatred for the enemy. I was hoping this was all we would need to claim victory.

Pippy was a trooper. She shook and shimmied but never let out a peep. Maybe she knew that we were fighting for her.

I wish I could say that the war was won once and for all that night but that is not so. There have been a number of attacks since and more bottles of flea fighting liquid have been added to our arsenal. Pippy has had countless baths. Chasing her around the house with various flea killing sprays has become our new game of choice. Her bedding has been washed and re-washed too many times to count.

Still the fight drags on. Last night I was once again stirred from a false sense of flea-lessness by incessant scratching coming from my furry companion sitting on the living room floor. I thought it was over! I thought we had won once and for all! But no. Upon further investigation I found another pesky intruder on her backside.

Back to the trenches (aka the bathtub).