Killing Fleas

Parasites suck, literally, and can carry all kinds of diseases.  You don't want parasites that feed on blood in your house.  They eat somebody's blood then could hop off and switch to you and infect you with bad things.

Fleas carry things like worm larvae, diseases like hemobartonella and even the plague.   They're not welcome here.

However, flea treating the crowd of cats, most feral, that haunt my place and cat yard, can be physically demanding.  They get the picture fast of what's going down, and after the first few cats, I have to bring out my fish net to get them.

I got most of them done yesterday, despite the difficulties of chasing down uncooperative cats.  I simply close the two bedroom doors, which locks most of them in their favorite places.  Then I systematically treat each cat, clean their ears, trim their nails, and worm them.   Some are nicer than others about it.  For the true ferals, I get them in my net with a towel over them they can hide their heads under.  If they can hide their head, they feel safe.  I'm quick about it.   For my sake and theirs.  I also had to shave off fat Oci's mats.

Oci is badly overweight and feral to boot.  She's been here ten years and is 10 1/2 years old.  At least.  She was left behind in Millersburg, with Sam and many others when someone just abandoned the trailer they lived in, kicking the cats outside with their kittens.  The kittens grew up wild and were all in their late teens by the time I got called on it.  Oci was near starved to death, with terribly inflamed eyes and the vet advised long term eye treatment.  So she stayed here for that.  And was not adoptable due to her feral nature and age.  I got her eye inflammation under control after a few months.  She wouldn't leave the food dish.  Most of the time, cats who have been starved, eventually slow down on the eating and realize the food isn't going away now. But not her.

Fat Oci, loves to nap, and has many many friends among the cats here.

I've tried various ways to get her exercise.  With so many cats, I have to free feed, so exercise was the option open to get her weight down.  I built the original cat wheel, and then a better one, years ago, for Oci, but she wouldn't use it.  Then I built the living room foster cage, just to contain her so I could limit her intake, but the shelves were too narrow for her.   My friend said, "she's happy right?"  "Yes," I said.  She said, "let her be."

I finally did.  With some lingering guilt.  But she gets mats on her back because she can't turn and groom herself on her upper back.  Yesterday, I shaved them off again.  I got some really cheap clippers on Amazon and they work so much better than anything I've used before, including some Andis clippers I got a few years ago that were not cheap.  You'd think the clippers are not even working they're so slow speed, but they trim mats like a charm.  I've never experienced the like!

The four Mclagan drive kittens are doing ok.  Winnie has lingering digestive issues, but the other three are thriving.  Winnie is too, I should say, gaining weight rapidly and playing like a kitten should and her digestive issues will resolve.  Takes time after suffering starvation.

Copper is the most delightful little girl kitten, (yes, she's is a girl.  I require reading glasses to sex kittens now and hadn't bothered with these four), and will be fixed Monday.  I have someone who wants her, hopefully that will work out.   The wilder pair, Meadow and Cheetah, are so funny and Meadow now arches her back and purrs loudly when petted.

I took away the carrier they used as a bed, in the bathroom, and hideout.  You have to do that if you want the wild ones to tame.

Look how the maple is repairing itself, after a branch tore off over a year ago.  It's forming new bark under the tattered old bark left after the branch tore off..  It's amazing to watch.  

Mostly the leaves have fallen now but a few remain, bright in color against the drabness that is taking over.

I really do love the county park even though the hours upon hundreds of hours I spent there was not so fun, trying to get all the cats fixed.   There are just the two boys left I feed every few days and I'm torn over removing them.  It's always best if they are left in familiar territory but going up there and feeding, is time and money costly.  But not that costly and I walk when I am there most of the time.  I need the exercise like fat Oci does and those cats give me incentive.  It is really a very beautiful park.

In the wind the other day, the neighbors basketball hoop was blown over and lay in the street, blocking at least half the road.   I knocked on their door, rang their bell, but no answer and finally, since it was late afternoon, and darkness comes early and this posed a terrible hazard, unable to lift it upright, I carried the lighter front end around to the curb.