Once bitten ...
The neighbours´ dogs Wolfie and Shaggy (formerly known as Boris; but ´he` has subsequently turned out to be a she) - who are actually called Goriti and … ooh, I´ve forgotten her name again - have been so grateful for our company, cuddles and proffered titbits that they felt they had to give us a nice present to show their appreciation. And so they did – since last week the cats and therefore the downstairs lounge (and God knows how many other rooms of the house) are infested with FLEAS. Cheers guys.
I had suspected for a while that things weren´t quite right. Grace did an awful lot of scratching and one day I noticed that her tail had a massive bald patch which I – unsuccessfully - tried to hide with a snazzy comb-over. I had furthermore become aware of some black specks of – what I naïvely suspected to be – dirt in the cats´ fur. I examined these bits closely (ugh!) but as they didn´t jump, I wasn´t alarmed. With hindsight – I should have been. Now of course I know that these ´specks of dirt` were in fact flea poo. What you do is brush some of those black particles onto a moist piece of white paper and if they turn red (that´s traces of the animal´s blood which remains in the flea droppings), it means you are faced with fleas. There were loads of red smudges on the paper. AAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!! So, what now? Well, first I googled ´fleas` and read up on the matter. Much to my horror, I learned that only 5% of fleas actually live on the animal whilst the other 95% (either as eggs, larvae or pupae in a cocoon) develop somewhere in your house. I quickly grabbed the vacuum cleaner and hoovered the entire house from top to bottom (great, more cleaning), in particular the areas the cats frequent. A visit to the chemist´s was then called for, where we bought an insecticide spray as well as Frontline spot-on and had to swallow hard when the pharmacist charged us almost 40 euros for 6 tiny pipettes. (What´s in ´em? Liquid gold?) We quickly forgot the idea of buying Frontline for the dogs. All rugs were banished from the house and we washed everything the cats had slept on, walked over, looked at …
And now to the hardest part: we have stopped the dogs from coming over to the house to drop off more unwanted gifts by shooing them away as soon as they appear in the driveway and try to ignore their confused and disappointed faces. I just need to pick up the water pistol now and Wolfie beats a hasty retreat, tail between his legs. (Aaaaw!) We have, in the meantime, actually met their owners, a lovely Spanish couple, who were extremely helpful when our water was cut off last weekend. Grateful for their support, we didn´t really want to wave the packet of Frontline under their noses: “Did you know you can buy this for dogs, too? And it´s an absolute bargain at only 6 euros a shot.” A lot of people here in Spain still seem to think that all animals have fleas and as most dogs and cats lead an outdoor life and never set a paw into the house, this doesn´t seem to bother people unduly.
I think I´m on top of the situation now, having hoovered and sprayed every day for the past week and I will certainly keep up this routine for the next fortnight at least. I must say that I do miss the dogs but I certainly won´t miss their little companions. Luckily Chica, the Spaniel, has (German) owners who regularly treat her for fleas, so she is still welcome chez nous.
Sorry Wolfie and Shaggy but unless we can educate your masters about what responsible dog ownership means, it looks as if this is the end of a beautiful friendship.
Wolfie
Shaggy