Seven Year Itch

Ack! Fleas! One of the most annoying things with dogs that I have ever had to deal with is fleas. If you've ever had to try and rid your home of fleas you know what a trial it can be. The last time I had to go through the endless loads of laundry, flea collars, flea baths, flea powder, and putting a mattress out in -30 weather to kill the litter buggers was at least 20 year ago. We had returned from a Puli Specialty in California not realizing the dogs brought home some little stow-aways. With 10+ Pulis it was a weeks long battle to rid the house and dogs of those itchy little monsters.

So for the last few weeks Ceilidh has been itching the base of her tail. I wasn't sure why, of course fleas never occurred to me because hey, its the middle of winter in Canada. I figured she had dry skin and thought little of it. As the spring shed is upon us I thought I'd give her a little brush and get some of that winter coat out.

Brush brush brush brush(which she loves) and I saw little flecks of black 'dirt' getting caught in the bristles. I thought, that's odd, how would she get dirt on her in here? My house isn't exactly dirty. So after a bunch of hair filled the brush I started to pull it off the bristles. And there they were.

Two fleas. Scrambling through the bristles, obviously distressed at unceremoniously being scraped from their host. Ack!

I filled a cup with water and scraped them off the brush into it. They were suspended for a moment and then floated to the top where they spun in little circles of panic. I spent a few more minutes brushing Ceilidh and got no more fleas. Then I brushed Weasley and looked carefully for flea dirt - none on him. I checked the dogs, nothing, not a hint of fleas at all and they haven't been scratching which is usually your first clue.

So I think the problem is restricted to the fat cat with the long hair. Fortunately I have some flea powder(for some reason) and I dusted the cats, all the cat beds, the dog beds and mats in the house. I also plan to pick up flea collars for the cats and if necessary for the dogs too. Hopefully this is the last of the fleas but my main question is ... where on earth did they come from? We are in full winter and fleas are warm weather critters, the cats are indoors all the time and the dogs, when out, are never around other animals that might carry fleas. It's just so odd. Not knowing where they came from makes it a little difficult to prevent them.